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THE  HISTORY 

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THE   SOUTH   in  the 

Building  of  the  Nation 


HISTORY   OF    THE 
SOUTHERN    STATES 

DESIGNED  to  RECORD  the 
SOUTH'S  PART  in  the  MAKING 
of  the  AMERICAN  NATION; 
to  PORTRAY  the  CHARACTER 
and  GENIUS,  to  CHRONICLE 
the  ACHIEVEMENTS  and  PROG 
RESS  and  to  ILLUSTRATE  the 
LIFE  and  TRADITIONS  of  the 
SOUTHERN  PEOPLE 


VOLUME  I 


^SOUTHERN  HISTORICAL 
PUBLICATION   SOCIETY 


RICHMOND 


VIRGINIA 


COPYRIGHT,  1909 

BY 
THE  SOUTHERN  HISTORICAL  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 


s*u 

V 

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF 

I — History  of  the  States 

JULIAN  ALVIN  CARROLL  CHANDLER,  Ph.D,  LLJX 

Professor  of  History,  Richmond  College 

// — The  Political  History 

FRANKLIN  LAFAYETTE  RILEY,  A.Mn  PhJ>. 

^  Professor  of  History,  University  of  Mississippi 

•J 

»x  /// — The  Economic  History 

,  4  JAMES  CURTIS  B ALLAGH,  PhJX,  LLD. 

«4i  Associate  Professor  of  American  History 

"**»  Johns  Hopkins  University 

IV — The  Literary  and  Intellectual  Life 

{  JOHN  BELL  HENNEMAN,  M.A.,  Ph.D. 

«*<  Professor  of  English  Literature,  University  of  the  South 

V — Fiction 


f 


EDWIN    MIMS 

Professor  of  English,  University  of  North  Carolina 

VI — Oratory 

Hon.  THOMAS  E.  WATSON 

Author  of  "Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson," 
"Life  of  Napoleon,"  etc. 

VII— The  Social  Life 

SAMUEL  CHILES  MITCHELL,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  D.D. 

President  of  the  University  of  South  Carolina 

VIII— Biography 

WALTER  LYNWOOD  FLEMING,  A.M.,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  History,  Louisiana  State  Univers«tr 


History  of  the  Southern  States 


VOLUMES  I,  II  AND  III 

CONTRIBUTORS 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA,   1584-1624 

J.  A.  C.  CHANDLER,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  History,  Richmond  Col- 
lege; Editor  The  Virginia  Journal  of  Education. 

VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE,  1684-1768 

LTON  GARDINER  TYLER,  LL.D.,  President  of  William  and  Mary  College, 
Williamsburg,  Va. ;  author  of  Cradle  of  the  Republic,  etc. 

THE  SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  LIFE  OF  VIRGINIA  IN  THE  SEVEN- 
TEENTH  CENTURY 

PHILIP  ALEXANDER  BRUCE,  LL.B.,  author  Economic  History  of  Vir- 
ginia in  the  Seventeenth  Century;  Formerly  Corresponding  Secretary 
of  Virginia  Historical  Society. 

FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH,  1763-1776 

SAMUEL  CHILES  MITCHELL,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  D.D.,  President  of  th« 
University  of  South  Carolina. 

THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA,  1776-1861 

JOHN  HOLLADAY  LATANE,  A.B.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History,  Washing- 
ton and  Lee  University,  Lexington,  Va. ;  author  of  Early  Relations 
of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  etc. 

VIRGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY,  1861-1865 

MAJOR  R.  W.  HUNTER,  Secretary  of  Military  Records,  The  Capitol,  Rich- 
mond, Va. 

VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION,  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
J.  P.  McCONNELL,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History  and  Political  Science, 
Emory  and  Henry  College,  Emory,  Va. 

THE  COLONY  OF  MARYLAND,  1632-1776 

BERNARD  CHRISTIAN  STEINER,  Ph.D.,  LL.B.,  Librarian  The  Enoch 
Pratt  Free  Library,  Baltimore,  Md. ;  author  of  The  Beginnings  of 
Maryland,  etc. 

MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868 

WILLIAM  HAND  BROWNE,  Professor  of  English  Literature,  Johns  Hop- 
kins University,  Baltimore,  Md. ;  author  of  Maryland,  The  History  of 
a  Palatinate,  etc. 

MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 

BERNARD  CHRISTIAN  STEINER,  Ph.D.,  LL.B.,  Librarian  The  Enoch 
Pratt  Free  Library,  Baltimore,  Md. 

KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA 

6EN.  BASIL  W.  DUKE,  author  of  The  History  of  Morgan's  Cavalry, 
Louisville,  Ky. 

KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865 

JOSIAU  STODDARD  JOHNSTON,  Formerly  Associate  Editor  Louisville 
Courier  Journal;  author  of  Confederate  History  of  Kentucky. 

vii 


CONTRIBUTORS. 

KENTUCKY  IK  THE  NEW  NATION,  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
GEORGE   ALLEN   HUBBELL,    A.M.,    Ph.D.,   Professor  of   Sociology   and 
Economics,  Kentucky  University. 

WEST  VIRGINIA— WHILE  THE  TWO  VIRGINIAS  WERE  ONE, 

1750-1861 

VIRGIL  A.  LEWIS,  State  Historian  and  Archivist,  Department  of 
Archives  and  History,  Charleston,  W.  Va. 

STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD,  1861-1863 

WILLIAM  P.  WILLEY,  A.B.,  A.M.,  Professor  of  Equity  Jurisprudence 
and  Commercial  Law,  West  Virginia  University. 

THE  STATE  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA,   1863  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
JAMES    MORTON    CALLAHAN,    A.M.,    Ph.D.,    Professor   of   History   and 
Political  Science,  West  Virginia  University,  Morgantown,  W.  Va. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY 

R.  D.  W.  CONNOR,  Secretary  of  North  Carolina  Historical  Commission, 
Raleigh,  N.  C. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE,  1729-1776 
ENOCH    WALTER   SIKES,   M.A.,    Ph.D.,   Professor   of   Political    Science, 
Wake  Forest  College,  Wake  Forest,  N.  C. 

NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861 

WILLIAM  KENNETH  BOYD,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History,  Trinity 
College,  Durham,  N.  C. 

NORTH   CAROLINA   IN   THE    CONFEDERACY,    1861-1865 
HON.   WALTER  CLARK,   LL.D.,   Chief  Justice   Supreme  Court,   Raleigh, 
N.  C. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  FROM  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
J.  G.  DB  ROULHAC  HAMILTON,  Ph.D.,   Alumni    Professor    of    History, 
University  of  North  Carolina,  Chapel  Hill,  N.  C. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  FROM  1562  TO  1789 

HENRY  ALEXANDER  WHITE,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  Professor  in  Columbia  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  Columbia,  S.  C. ;  author  of  The  Making  of  South 
Carolina. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  A  STATE  IN  THE  FEDERAL  UNION,  1789-1860 
DAVID    DUNCAN    WALLACE,    A.M.,    Ph.D.,    Professor    of    History    and 
Economics,  Wofford  College,   Spartanburg,   S.  C. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY,  1860-1865 
W.  E.  GONZALES,  Editor  of  The  State,  Columbia,  S.  C. 

THE  NEW  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
WILLIAM  SHANNON  MORRISON,  A.B.,  Professor  of  History  and  Politi- 
cal Economy,  Clemson   College. 

THE  COLONY  OF  GEORGIA,  1732-1776 

WILLIAM  HARDEN,  Librarian  Savannah  Public  Library,  and  Georgia 
Historical  Society. 

GEORGIA  IN  THE  FEDERAL  UNION,  1776-1861 

ULRICH  BONNELL  PHILLIPS,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History,  Tulane  Uni- 
versity, New  Orleans,  La. 

GEORGIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY,  1861-1865 
JOSEPH  T.  DERRY,  A.M.,  author  of  Military  History  of  Georgia. 

GEORGIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION,  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
LAWTON  B.  EVANS,  A.M.,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Augusta,  Qa. 

viii 


CONTRIBUTORS. 

COLONIAL   AND  TERRITORIAL   ALABAMA,   1540-1819 
PETER    JOSEPH    HAMILTON,    author    of    Colonization    of    the    South 
Rtxonstruction,  etc.,  Mobile,  Ala. 

ALABAMA  FROM  1819  TO  1865 

GEORGE  PETRIE,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History  and  Latin,  Alabama 
Polytechnic  Institute,  Auburn,  Ala. 

RECONSTRUCTION   IN  ALABAMA,  1866-1880 

WALTER  LYNWOOD  FLEMING,  A.M..  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History 
Louisana  State  University,  Baton  Rouge,  La. ;  author  of  Civil  War 
and  Reconstruction  in  Alabama. 

THE  NEW  ALABAMA,  1880  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
WILLIAM  O.  SCROGGS,  A.M.,  Assistant  Professor  of  History,  Louisiana 
State  University. 

COLONIAL    AND    TERRITORIAL   MISSISSIPPI,    1699-1817 
PETER    JOSEPH    HAMILTON,    author    of    Colonization    of    the    South 
Reconstruction,  etc.,  Mobile,  Ala. 

MISSISSIPPI  A  STATE  IN  THE  UNION,  1817-1861 

DUNBAR  ROWLAND,  B.S..  LL.B.,  Director  Department  of  Archives 
and  History,  Jackson,  Miss. ;  author  of  Mississippi  Official  and  Statis- 
tical Register. 

MISSISSIPPI  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY,  1861-1865 

FRANKLIN  LAFAYETTE  RILEY,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History 
University  of  Mississippi,  University,  Miss. 

MISSISSIPPI  A  PART  OF  THE  NATION,  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
DUNBAR  ROWLAND,  B.S.,  LL.B.,  LL.D.,  Director  Department  of  Archives 
and  History,  Jackson,  Miss.,  etc. 

COLONIAL  AND  TERRITORIAL  TENNESSEE 
WALKER  KENNEDY,  Editor  of  the  Commercial  Appeal,  Memphis,  Tenn. 

TENNESSEE  AS  A  STATE,  1796-1861 

JAMES  DICKASON  HOSKINS,  B.S.,  A.M.,  LL.B.,  Professor  of  History 
and  Economics,  University  of  Tennessee,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

TENNESSEE  A  PART  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY,  1861-1865 
JAMES  DICKASON   HOSKINS,   B.S.,   A.M.,  LL.B.,   Professor  of  History 
and  Economics,   University  of  Tennessee. 

TENNESSEE  FROM  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
CAREY  A.  FOLK,  Assistant  Treasurer  State  of  Tennessee. 

FLORIDA   FROM  1512  TO   1819 

DKWITT  WEBB,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Secretary  of  Florida  Historical  Society, 
St.  Augustine,  Fla. 

FLORIDA,  1819  TO  1861 

ANDREW  SLEDD,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  President  University  of  the  State  of 
Florida,  Gainesville,  Fla. 

FLORIDA  FROM  1861  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 

CHARLES  H.  SMITH,  Formerly  Secretary  Board  of  Trade,  Jacksonville, 
Fla. 

LOUISIANA  UNDER  FRENCH  AND  SPANISH  CONTROL,    1528-1803 
WILLIAM  BEER,  Librarian   Howard  Memorial  Library,  New  Orleans,  La. 

TERRITORY  OF  ORLEANS,  1803-1812 

HENRY  EDWARD  CHAMBERS,  Professor  of  English,  New  Orleans  Boyg' 
High  School,  New  Orleans,  La. 


CONTRIBUTORS. 

LOUISIANA   IN  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT,   1812-1881 
PIERCE  BUTLER,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  English,  H.  Sophie  Newcomb  Me- 
morial College,  New  Orleans,  La. 

LOUISIANA  IK  THE  CONFEDERACY  AND  RECONSTRUCTION,  1861-1877 
WALTER   L.    FLEMING,    A.M.,    Ph.D.,    Professor    of   History,    Louisiana 
State  University. 

MODERN  LOUISIANA,   1876  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
HENRY  EDWARD  CHAMBERS,  Professor  of  English,  New  Orleans  Boys' 
High  School. 

MISSOURI  FROM  1682  TO   1804 

JONAS  VILES,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  American  History,  University  of 
Missouri,  Columbia,  Mo. 

THE   TERRITORIAL  PERIOD    OF  MISSOURI,    1804-1820 
JONAS  VILES,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  American  History,  University  of 
Missouri. 

MISSOURI  FROM  1820  TO  1865 

HON.  CHAMP  CLARK,  Member  of  Congress  from  Missouri,  Bowling 
Green,  Mo. 

MISSOURI  FROM  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 

.WALTER  WILLIAMS,  LL.D.,  Dean  of  the  Department  of  Journalism  and 
Professor  of  the  History  and  Principles  of  Journalism  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Missouri ;  editor  of  the  State  of  Missouri. 

ARKANSAS  FROM  1539  TO  1836 

JOHN  HUGH  REYNOLDS,  A.B.,  A.M.,  Professor  of  History  and  Political 
Science,  University  of  Arkansas,  Fayetteville,  Ark. 

ARKANSAS,  1836-1861 

FAY  HEMPSTEAD,  author  of  Hempstead's  History  of  Arkansas,  Littl« 
Rock,  Ark. 

ARKANSAS  FROM  1861  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 

FAY  HEMPSTEAD,  author  of  Hempstead's  History  of  Arkansas,  Little 
Rock,  Ark. 

TEXAS  A  FART  OF  MEXICO 

CHARLES  WOODWARD  HUTSON,  Member  American  Historical  Associa- 
tion, formerly  Professor  in  A.  and  M.  College,  College  Station,  Tex. 

TEXAS  AS  A  REPUBLIC 

EUGENE  CAMPBELL  BARKER,  B.A.,  M.A.,  Instructor  in  History,  Uni- 
versity of  Texas;  co-editor  With  the  Makers  of  Texas. 

TEXAS   IN   THE    FEDERAL   UNION,    1845-1861 

SAMUEL  PALMER  BROOKS,  A.B.,  A.M.,  LL.D.,  President  Baylor  Uni- 
versity, Waco,  Tex. 

TEXAS  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY,   1861-1865 

CHARLES  WILLIAM  RAMSDELL,  B.A.,  M.A.,  Instructor  in  History, 
University  of  Texas ;  Corresponding  Secretary  of  Texas  State  His- 
torical Association. 

TEXAS  IN  THE  NEW  NATION,  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 
CHARLES   WILLIAM    RAMSDELL,    B.A.,    M.A.,    Instructor   in    History, 
University  of  Texas. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


VIRGINIA. 

CHAPTER   I.— THE   BEGINNINGS    OF   VIRGINIA,    1584-1624. 

Page. 

Early  English  Exploration 1 

The    Roanoke   Colony 3 

Steps  to  Permanent  Settlement g 

The  London  Company  Charter 9 

Settlement  at  Jamestown 11 

The  London  Company  Reorganized 14 

The  First  American  Legislative  Assembly 17 

Charter  of  London  Company  Annulled 19 

CHAPTER  II.— VIRGINIA'  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE,   1624-1763. 

Government  of  the  Royal  Province  of  Virginia 23 

Claiborne's    Struggle   for   Territorial    Integrity 24 

Commonwealth  Period  in  Virginia 27 

Bacon's    Rebellion 29 

The  English  Revolution  Ushers  in  a  New  Era 34 

Western   Movement  and   Settlements 36 

Intercolonial  Affairs  and  Indian  Wars 39 

Social    Conditions,    1760 44 

CHAPTER    III.— THE    ECONOMIC    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE    OF    VIR- 
GINIA IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

The  Plantation  System 46 

The  Two  Classes  of  Labor 50 

Proportion  of  Criminals 52 

Frequency  of  Change 54 

The  Superiority  of  Slave  Labor 55 

Social   Life  Under  the  Plantation   System 58 

The  Origin  of  the  Planting  Class 60 

Social  Organization 62 

Class    Distinctions 62 

Virginians  and  the  Mother  Country 64 

The  Home  Life 65 

The  Diversions  of  the  People 68 

CHAPTER  IV.— FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH,  1763-1776. 

Virginia's  Opposition  to  Boston  Port  Bill 76 

The  First  Convention,   1774 78 

The  Second  Convention,  1775 80 

The    Last    House   of    Burgesses 82 

The  Third  Convention,  1775 85 

War  with  Dunmore 86 

The  Fourth  Convention,   1775 87 

The  Fifth  Convention,  1776:    Adoption  of  a  Constitution 88 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V.— THE  COMMONWEALTH  OP  VIRGINIA,  1776-1881. 

Page. 

Virginia  Troops  in  the  Revolution 90 

The  Virginia  Navy  of  the  Revolution 97 

Conquest  and  Cession  of  the  Northwest  Territory 99 

The  Adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 102 

Resolutions   of    1798-1799 104 

Internal  Improvements  and  the  State  Debt 106 

State    Sectionalism 107 

Slavery 110 

Secession    Ill 

CHAPTER  VI.— VIRGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY,   1861-1865. 

Virginia's  Unwillingness  to  Leave  the  Union 113 

Virginia    Secedes 117 

Virginia's   Army 119 

Virginia's  Contribution  to  the  Confederate  Armies 121 

Conclusion 125 

CHAPTER  VII.— VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION,   1865-1909. 

Reconstruction  and  Readmission  into  the  Union 127 

The  State  Debt 133 

Political  Conditions 135 

Universal    Education 137 

New  Industries  and  Wealth  of  State 141 

Contrast  of  Old  and  New  Economic  and  Social  Conditions 144 

MARYLAND. 

CHAPTER  I.— THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND,  1608-1776. 

Geography   of   Maryland 149 

Lord  Baltimore's  Grant 150 

Religious  Toleration 153 

Settlement  of   Maryland 155 

Government  of  the  Province 156 

Maryland,    1654-1676 160 

Relations  with   Penn 164 

Internal    Disturbances 165 

Annapolis  and  the  Church  Establishment 166 

The  Proprietors  from  1715  to  1776 168 

Maryland,  1765  to  1776 173 

CHAPTER  II.— MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868. 

Steps  to  the  Revolution 178 

Maryland    an    Independent    State 180 

Maryland's  Part  in  Forming  the  United  States 182 

Maryland's  Part  in  the  Revolutionary  War 184 

Maryland's  Condition  at  Close  of  the  Revolutionary  War 186 

James    Rumsey 188 

Maryland's   Part  in  the   Formation   of  the  United   States   Con- 
stitution      188 

Maryland's  Part  in  the  War  of  1812 190 

Growth   of   Industries,    1815-1860 194 

Slavery  in  Maryland 196 

Political    Parties 197 

State  Convention,  1837 198 

Work  of  George  Peabody 198 

Slavery    a    Political    Issue 199 

Maryland  in  the  War  of  Secession 202 

Political   Conditions  During  the  War 206 

Constitution  of   1864 207 

Maryland  at  the  Close  of  the  War 208 

CHAPTER  III.— HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909. 

Political  Condition  at  Close  of  War 210 

Constitution  of   1867 215 

Noteworthy   Events,    1868-1908 217 

Industrial    Growth 226 

Progress  in  Education,   Etc 228 

Religion    234 

xii 


CONTENTS. 
KENTUCKY. 

CHAPTER  I.— KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA,  1606-1792. 

Finding  of  Kentucky .""  2~36 

Settlement  of   Kentucky i 241 

Kentucky  a  County  in  Virginia 247 

Kentucky's  Part  in  the  Revolutionary  War 249 

Steps   to    Statehood 254 

CHAPTER  II.— KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865. 

Steps    to    Statehood 259 

The  Constitutional  History  of  Kentucky 264 

The  First  Constitution 265 

The    Second    Constitution 267 

The   Third  and  Fourth  Constitutions 268 

The  Resolutions  of  '98 270 

The   School   System 272 

Early  Military  History  of  Kentucky 274 

The  War  of  1812 278 

Battle  of  New  Orleans 283 

The  Mexican  War 284 

The  War  of  Secession 287 

Provisional  Government  of  Kentucky 296 

The  Return  of  Peace 298 

Mountain    Feuds 299 

CHAPTER  III.— KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION,  1865-1909. 

Conditions  at  the  Close  of  the  War  of  Secession 304 

Interpretation  of  the  Constitution  and  Abolition  of  Slavery 307 

Peace   and    Development 309 

The  Period  of  Apathy 311 

A  New  Awakening 313 

The   Negro    To-day 314 

The  Mountain   Region 315 

Moral  and  Religious  Growth 316 

The  Era  of  Progress 317 

The  Goebel   Trial 322 

Agricultural  and   Mineral   Products 325 

The  New  Social  Consciousness 326 

Educational   Conditions 329 

Conclusion    < 331 

WEST  VIRGINIA. 

CHAPTER    I.  —  WHILE    THE    TWO    VIRGINIAS     WERE    ONE, 
1750-1861. 

Geography  of  West  Virginia 333 

Early  Explorations 334 

Settlements  Before  1754 336 

Wars  with  Indians 339 

Settlements,    1760-1776 341 

More  Indian  Wars:  Battle  of  Point  Pleasant 345 

West  Virginia  in  the  Revolution • 347 

Development    After    Revolution 350 

Western  Virginia  in  the  War  of  1812 • 353 

Fight  for  Democratic  Government 357 

Western  Virginia  from  1830  to  1860 1 359 

CHAPTER  II.— STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD,  1861-1863. 

The  Two  Virginias  Before  Divorce 365 

Steps  Leading  to  the  "Parting  of  the  Ways" 368 

Reorganizing  the  Virginia  Government 375 

The  Restored  Government  of  Virginia  in  Operation 377 

The  New  State  Issue  in  Congress , 380 

President  Lincoln  Starts  the  Machinery  of  the  New  State 382 

CHAPTER  III.— WEST  VIRGINIA,    1863-1909. 

West  Virginia's  Part  in  the  War  of  Secession 385 

Politics  and  Political   Issues 385 

Industrial  Progress i 398 

Population  and   Material    Wealth 401 

Education 404 

Interstate  Relations 407 


CONTENTS. 
NORTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAPTER  I.— NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY,  1587-1728. 

Page. 

Settlers   from    Virginia 413 

Cape  Fear  Region 418 

The    Proprietary 420 

Government  421 

Character  of  the  Governors 425 

The  People > 426 

Rebellions     427 

Church  of  England   Established 430 

North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  Separate 433 

Trouble  with  Indians 433 

Pirates    435 

Boundary  Between  North  Carolina  and  Virginia 437 

Proprietary    Abolished 437 

Conclusion    438 

CHAPTER     II.  — NORTH     CAROLINA     A     ROYAL     PROVINCE, 
1729-1776. 

Condition  from  1729  to  1752 441 

Expansion  of  the  Province,  1752-1765 444 

Religious  Conditions 445 

Land    Grants 446 

French  and  Indian  Wars 447 

William  Tryon  and  the  War  of  the  Regulation,  1765-1771 449 

Regulators    452 

The  End  of  the  Provincial  Period 457 

CHAPTER   III.— NORTH  CAROLINA,    1775-1861. 

Governor  Martin's  Administration 462 

Provincial    Congress 465 

An  Independent  State 466 

North  Carolina  in  the  Revolutionary  War 469 

North  Carolina's  Attitude  Toward  the  Federal  Constitution 471 

Domestic  Affairs 473 

New    Constitution 474 

Whig    Ascendency 475 

Internal    Improvements 476 

Charities    477 

Whigs  Defeated 477 

Slavery    478 

Secession 481 

CHAPTER    IV.— NORTH    CAROLINA    IN    THE    CONFEDERACY, 
1861-1865. 

North  Carolina  Joins  the  Confederacy 483 

Preparing  for  War 484 

Governor   Vance 487 

Tke  War  in  1861 487 

The  War  in  1862 489 

The  War  in  1863 ,                                      491 

The  War  in  1864 492 

The  War  in  1865 493 

Conclusion    494 

CHAPTER  V.— NORTH  CAROLINA  FROM  1865  TO  THE  PRESENT 
TIME. 

Reconstruction   497 

Johnson's  Plan  of  Reorganization ;  Governor  Holden 498 

Governor   Worth 499 

New    Constitution , 501 

Reconstruction  Acts 501 

Constitutional    Convention 502 

Legislature  of   1868 504 

Ku  Klux  Klan  in  North  Carolina 504 

End  of  Reconstruction  Period 506 

State  Politics  Since  1876 507 

Development  of  Governmental  Activity 510 

Educational    Development 512 

Economic    Development 514 

xiv 


EDITORS'  PREFACE. 

5/ 

'HE  widespread  interest  in  Southern  history 
and  the  demand  for  a  comprehensive  and 
authoritative  work  on  the  subject  account 
for  the  appearance  of  this  series.  It  has 
been  planned  with  the  double  purpose  of  presenting 
in  brief  compass  the  separate  histories  of  the  South- 
ern States  and  of  treating,  in  a  satisfactory  way, 
the  wider  relations — interstate,  intersectional  and 
federal — as  well  as  the  economic  and  social  condi- 
tions of  the  South,  which  have  never  received  full 
treatment  at  the  hands  of  historians. 

The  multiplication  of  detached  works  on  state 
history  and  the  publication,  by  local  and  state  or- 
ganizations, of  valuable  archives  and  monographs 
have  made  the  historical  literature  of  the  separate 
states  too  extensive  for  the  use  of  the  general  reader, 
and  have  at  the  same  time  emphasized  the  need  of 
combining  in  one  series  the  results  of  recent  in- 
vestigations in  the  various  fields  considered.  Since 
it  was  not  intended  that  the  volumes  devoted  to  state 
history,  any  more  than  the  others,  should  be  a  mere 
compilation  from  histories  already  published,  this 
part  of  the  work  also  has  been  done  by  scholars 
whose  independent  researches  give  ample  assurance 
of  the  originality  and  authenticity  of  their  contribu- 
tions. 

The  editors  believe  that,  in  attempting  the  more 
difficult  and  important  task  of  providing  for  a  gen- 
eral history  of  the  South,  they  may,  without  pre- 
sumption, lay  claim  to  a  larger  aim  than  is  repre- 
sented by  former  works  in  this  field.  Until  the 
present  time,  the  meagreness  and  inaccessibility  of 
the  necessary  sources  have,  in  great  measure,  re- 


EDITORS'   PREFACE. 

stricted  the  efforts  of  Southern  historians  to  their 
respective  states.  Since  this  method  of  work  min- 
imizes and  often  ignores  entirely  those  developments 
which  are  not  confined  by  state  limits  and  which  are 
consequently  far-reaching  in  their  effects,  it  has  pro- 
duced an  unfortunate  result  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  general  historian.  It  is  believed,  too,  that  recent 
historical  activity  respecting  the  South  has  now  pro- 
vided facilities  which  render  possible  the  investiga- 
tion of  topics  relating  to  the  entire  section  without 
relying  wholly  upon  secondary  authorities,  which 
have  been  prepared  principally  from  a  local  point  of 
view. 

It  was  evident  to  the  editors  that  the  proper  exe- 
cution of  their  task,  within  a  brief  time,  would  re- 
quire a  judicious  division  of  labor,  and  they  began 
their  work  in  the  confident  belief  that  its  importance 
would  enlist  the  active  cooperation  of  scholars  in 
every  part  of  the  South.  Each  member  of  the  edi- 
torial staff  prepared  a  detailed  outline  of  the  sub- 
jects to  be  treated  in  his  department,  being  careful 
to  avoid  trespassing  upon  the  work  of  other  depart- 
ments and  at  the  same  time  so  to  coordinate  the  sub- 
ject matter  as  to  provide  in  the  series  for  an  ade- 
quate treatment  of  every  important  phase  of  South- 
ern history.  Assignments  were  then  made  with  the 
greatest  care,  contributors  being  chosen  who  were  in 
a  position  to  write  authoritatively  upon  their  re- 
spective subjects. 

The  pages  of  this  series  have  not  been  burdened 
with  footnotes,  this  omission  being  supplied  by  the 
insertion  of  a  working  bibliography  at  the  end  of 
each  chapter.  No  effort  has  been  made,  however,  to 
reproduce  elaborate  lists  of  obsolete  works  which, 
although  familiar  to  the  contributors,  would  be  in- 
accessible to  the  general  reader. 

xvi 


EDITORS'   PREFACE. 

The  title  of  the  series,  THE  SOUTH  IN  THE  BUILD- 
ING OF  THE  NATION,  indicates  the  general  point  of 
view  from  which  the  work  has  been  planned  and 
executed.  Owing  to  peculiar  conditions  the  South 
was,  and  to  some  extent  still  is,  a  sort  of  political 
and  economic  unit — a  definite  section — with  an  inter- 
related and  separate  history,  special  problems  and 
distinct  life.  It  has  been  attempted,  without  dis- 
paragement to  other  sections,  to  provide  for  a  judi- 
cious and  unimpassioned  account  of  the  important 
and  honorable  part  the  South  has  contributed  to  the 
history  and  wealth  of  the  Nation. 

Since  it  is  the  function  of  the  historian  not  only  to 
narrate  facts  but  to  interpret  them,  the  writers  have 
been  selected  from  scholars  who,  because  of  their 
thorough  familiarity  with  the  historic  traditions, 
sentiments  and  facts  of  the  South,  are  best  qualified 
to  write  its  history.  Through  their  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  and  contact  with  the  South,  it  is  believed  that 
the  contributors  of  these  volumes  have  had  a  special 
preparation  for  the  work  which  they  have  under- 
taken. 

In  conclusion,  the  editors  acknowledge  with  pleas- 
ure their  indebtedness  to  the  many  writers,  too 
numerous  to  mention  separately  in  this  connection, 
whose  hearty  cooperation  and  scholarly  work  have 
assured  the  success  of  the  enterprise. 

THE  EDITOBS. 


xvn 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

THE  STATES. 

•*/ 

5HREE  volumes  in  this  series  have  been  de- 
voted to  the  history  of  the  states  told 
separately.  The  writing  of  the  history  of 
each  state  has  been  assigned  to  several 
writers,  men  who  are  recognized  in  their  respective 
states  as  authorities  on  periods  which  they  treat. 
The  desire  has  been  to  have  a  somewhat  encyclopaedic 
account  but  not  a  dry  chronological  statement  of 
facts.  The  result,  therefore,  is  that  the  essays  in 
these  three  volumes  show  much  individuality  and 
represent  many  view-points. 

In  these  volumes  will  be  found  a  treatment 
of  fifteen  states,  the  eleven  states  which  organized 
the  "Confederate  States  of  America,"  the  three  bor- 
der states  of  Maryland,  Kentucky  and  Missouri  and 
the  state  of  West  Virginia  which  was  carved  out 
of  Virginia  during  the  War  of  Secession. 

The  order  of  arrangement  of  the  histories  of  the 
states  in  these  volumes  is  as  follows : 

I.  Virginia  and  the  states  formed  from  her  orig- 
inal territory:  Maryland,  Kentucky,  West  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Tennessee. 

II.  Georgia  and  the  states  formed  from  its  orig- 
inal territory:  Alabama  and  Mississippi. 

III.  Florida,  which,  though  it  contains  the  oldest 
town  in  the  United  States,  is  not  treated  in  its  his- 
torical order  since  it  did  not  become  a  part  of  the 
United  States  till  1819,  but  is  placed  after  the 
Georgia  group  on  account  of  its  proximity. 

IV.  The  states  west  of  the  Mississippi  River  in 
the  order  of  their  admission  to  the  Union. 

A  list  of  the  governors  of  the  states  and  other  mat- 
ter will  be  found  at  the  end  of  Volume  III. 

J.  A.  C.  C. 

ziz 


\ 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE  TO 
THE    HISTORY  OF    THE    STATES. 


The  South  Misunderstood. 

OME  years  ago,  Dr.  Thomas  Nelson  Page 
delivered  an  address  on  "The  Want  of  a 
History  of  the  Southern  People."  In  this 
address  he  said : 

"There  is  no  true  history  of  the  South.  In  a  few  years  there  will  be 
no  South  to  demand  a  history.  What  of  our  history  is  known  by  the 
world  to-day?  What  is  our  position  in  history?  How  are  we  regarded? 
Nothing  or  next  to  nothing  is  known  of  our  true  history  by  the  world  at 
large.  By  a  limited  class  in  England  there  is  a  vague  belief  founded  on 
a  sentiment  that  the  South  was  the  aristocratic  section  of  this  country, 
and  that  it  stood  for  its  rights,  even  with  an  indefensible  cause.  By  a 
somewhat  more  extended  class  its  heroism  is  admired  sufficiently  to 
partly  condone  its  heresies.  But  these  are  a  small  part  of  the  public. 
By  the  world  at  large  we  are  held  to  have  been  an  ignorant,  illiterate, 
cruel,  semi-barbarous  section  of  the  American  people,  sunk  in  brutality 
and  vice,  who  have  contributed  nothing  to  the  advancement  of  man- 
kind; a  race  of  slave-drivers,  who,  to  perpetuate  human  slavery,  con- 
spired to  destroy  the  Union,  and  plunged  the  country  into  war.  Of  this 
war,  precipitated  by  ourselves,  two  salient  facts  are  known — that  in  it 
we  were  whipped,  and  that  we  treated  our  prisoners  with  barbarity. 
Libby  Prison  and  Andersonville  have  become  bywords  which  fill  the 
world  with  horror.  Why  should  this  be,  when  the  real  fact  is  that  Libby 
was  the  best  lighted  and  ventilated  prison  on  either  side;  when  the  hor- 
rors of  Andersonville  were  greatly  due  to  the  terrible  refusal  of  the 
Northern  government  to  exchange  prisoners  or  to  send  medicines  to 
their  sick;  when  the  prisoners  there  fared  as  well  as  our  men  in  the  field, 
and  when  the  treatment  of  Southern  prisoners  in  Northern  prisons  was 
as  bad  if  not  worse,  and  the  rate  of  mortality  was  as  great  there  as  in 
ours?" 

Much  of  what  Dr.  Page  has  said  is  correct.  No 
true  history  of  the  South  has  been  written.  The 
South  has  been  greatly  misrepresented  because  her 
history  has  not  been  given  fully  to  the  world.  But 
the  feeling  which  existed  a  few  years  ago  with  refer- 
ence to  the  South  is  fast  disappearing  and  the  other 
sections  of  this  country  as  well  as  the  world  at  large 


xxn  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

are  realizing  that  the  South  is  not  such  a  section 
as  she  has  been  represented  to  be.  More  and  more 
the  historians  are  studying  Southern  conditions 
and  learning  that  the  Southern  people  have 
figured  in  more  ways  than  one  in  the  history  of 
America.  Slavery  was  an  institution  which  flour- 
ished and  grew  chiefly  in  the  South,  and  since  the 
only  struggle  in  America  between  the  states  resulted 
in  the  extinction  of  that  institution,  the  first  thought 
in  the  mind  of  a  Northern  man  when  the  South  is 
mentioned  is  the  institution  of  slavery.  But  as 
Southern  life  and  Southern  conditions  are  studied, 
historians  are  beginning  to  associate  the  South  with 
other  events  in  American  history,  and  with  institu- 
tional development  other  than  slavery.  Much  of  the 
investigation  in  Southern  history,  which  of  recent 
years  has  been  going  on,  has  been  made  not  by  South- 
ern writers  but  by  men  of  the  North,  who  in  many 
instances  have  faithfully  and  consistently  tried  to  be 
fair,  but  who,  because  they  have  not  been  reared 
under  Southern  conditions,  have  been  biased  by  the 
environments  of  their  youth  and  by  their  residence 
without  being  aware  of  the  fact.  Notable  among  the 
writers  who  have  given  prominence  to  Southern  life 
and  history  are  Ehodes,  Fiske,  and  Albert  Bushnell 
Hart.  The  latter  two,  connected  with  the  great  Har- 
vard University  have  endeavored  to  present  fairly 
Southern  conditions,  but  neither  has  been  able  to 
view  the  life  of  the  South  through  the  same  glasses 
as  a  Southerner. 

Need  of  a  History  of  the  South. 

The  time  is,  therefore,  ripe  for  the  production  of  a 
comprehensive,  broad  and  scholarly  work  by  South- 
ern writers.  Such  a  work  must  cover  much  un- 
traveled  territory  and  new  sources  of  material,  and 
necessarily  cannot  be  all-inclusive  or  entirely  ac- 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  Xxm 

curate,  but  in  its  general  concept  will  be  true  to  the 
South,  showing  its  influence  in  the  building  of  the 
nation,  with  harshness  and  bitterness  eliminated. 
Such  a  work  should  turn  the  eyes  of  Southerners 
to  a  more  careful  study  of  their  own  history,  and 
should  likewise  rectify  the  misconceptions  of  many 
Northerners,  placing  the  South  in  its  true  position 
with  reference  to  the  rest  of  the  nation.  The  need 
of  the  presentation  of  the  history  of  the  South  is 
seen  on  every  hand.  School  children  in  all  parts 
of  the  country  know  of  the  Mayflower,  but  few  know 
of  the  Discovery,  the  Godspeed  and  the  Susan  Con- 
stant. The  relative  importance  of  Virginia  and 
Massachusetts  in  colonial  days  is  rarely  fully  appre- 
ciated, and  few  will  remember  that  Virginia  was  a 
colony  of  eleven  plantations  with  a  Representative 
Assembly  making  laws  for  the  government  of  the 
Colony,  planning  for  a  college,  asserting  the  rights 
of  British  subjects  before  the  Pilgrims  had  landed 
at  Plymouth.  Few  also  recall  the  impetus  given  by 
the  Virginia  colony  to  colonial  enterprise  resulting 
in  the  establishment  of  other  American  colonies  and 
the  development  of  the  English  colonial  empire. 
Few  really  recall  the  fact  that  the  Pilgrims  who 
sailed  in  the  Mayflower  were  searching  for  Virginia 
but  were  unexpectedly  driven  to  the  bleak  coasts 
of  New  England.  This  is  not  in  any  way  intended 
to  detract  from  New  England's  influence  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  nation,  but  it  is  the  duty  of  a  South- 
erner as  well  as  the  duty  of  a  New  Englander  to 
preserve  the  history  of  his  own  particular  locality 
and  to  give  that  locality  its  proper  relation  to  the 
history  of  the  entire  country.  The  local  history  of 
New  England  as  well  as  its  relation  to  the  nation 
has  been  in  many  ways  thoroughly  written.  The 
South  must  do  likewise  with  its  history,  but  to  the 
present  time  only  one  phase — that  which  looked  to 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

the  disruption  of  the  Union — has  been  written, — and 
that  in  voluminous  works. 

In  writing  the  history  of  the  South  a  number  of 
elements  must  be  taken  into  consideration.  First, 
it  is  necessary  to  think  of  the  states  in  their  indi- 
vidual capacity.  Each  has  in  some  ways  a  peculiar 
life  and  a  peculiar  development  which  must  be  recog- 
nized in  the  portrayal  of  its  life  as  a  whole.  A  com- 
prehensive and  general  treatment,  therefore,  of  each 
state  should  be  made.  Moreover,  the  relation  of  one 
Southern  state  to  another,  and  finally  the  relation 
of  the  Southern  states  to  the  Federal  government, 
both  individually  and  as  units,  must  come  under  the 
ieye  of  the  historian.  In  other  words,  we  believe  that 
there  should  be  a  history  of  the  Southern  states  in- 
dividually, succeeded  by  a  comprehensive  treatment 
of  the  political,  economic  and  social  history  of  the 
states  in  their  relations  to  each  other  and  to  the 
nation.  In  such  a  history  some  states  should  be 
considered  that  were  not  members  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  but  which  owe  their  development  to 
the  South,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  border  states 
of  Maryland,  Kentucky,  West  Virginia  and  Missouri. 
Maryland  is  essentially  Southern,  while  "West  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky  owe  their  origin  to  Virginians. 
This  might  also  be  said  of  Missouri,  which  owes  its 
growth  to  Southerners.  In  such  a  work  there  should 
also  be  sketches  of  the  lives  and  accomplishments 
of  the  statesmen  who  have  figured  so  prominently 
in  the  movements  that  have  produced  our  growth 
in  territory  and  wealth,  and  have  made  ours  the 
greatest  government  on  the  earth. 

South    Settled   Under   Conditions    Different   from   Those    of 
New    England. 

The  question  may  be  asked:  "What  are  the  essen- 
tial facts  of  Southern  History?"  This  question  can- 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  XXv 

not  be  easily  answered  because  of  the  multiplicity  of 
important  events  and  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  many 
events  which  have  transpired  in  various  sections  of 
the  South.  A  full  appreciation  of  the  South  in  his- 
tory, however,  means  some  appreciation  of  its  colo- 
nial life.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  Sixteenth  century, 
Elizabethan  England  was  budding  into  a  commer- 
cial nation.  Trading  companies  had  been  organized 
in  Holland,  Scotland,  Germany,  France  and  even 
Russia  for  trade  and  commerce,  chiefly  with  the 
East.  England  turned  her  eyes  also  to  the  Orient 
but  more  particularly  to  the  Occident.  The  phenom- 
enal growth  of  Spain,  due  to  the  wealth  secured  from 
South  American  and  Central  American  countries  and 
the  West  Indies,  excited  the  envy  of  English  states- 
men and  merchant  sailors.  Moreover,  the  difference 
in  religion  between  Spain  and  England,  as  well  as 
other  political  causes,  produced  friction.  The  out- 
come was  that  the  English  turned  their  eyes  toward 
America  with  the  hope  of  securing  wealth  by  means 
of  commerce  and  colonization,  and  at  the  same  time 
with  the  desire  of  checking  the  Spanish  empire  in 
its  progress  and  its  acquisition  of  all  the  western 
hemisphere.  These  mingled  purposes  resulted  in 
attempted  settlements  first  in  Newfoundland,  and 
later,  under  Sir  "Walter  Raleigh,  in  the  present  state 
of  North  Carolina.  Lack  of  proper  organization  and 
failure  to  ascertain  conditions  prior  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  colony,  caused  the  abandonment  of 
Raleigh's  Roanoke  settlement.  With  the  success, 
however,  of  the  East  India  Company  chartered  by 
Queen  Elizabeth,  the  determination  of  the  British 
to  again  attempt  to  colonize  America  resulted  in  the 
chartering  by  James  I.  of  the  Virginia  Company  in 
two  divisions,  the  London  and  Plymouth  Companies, 
both  of  which  were  commercial  enterprises  not  un- 
like the  East  India  Company  in  plan  and  scope.  A 


xxvi  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

successful  colony  was  planted  in  Virginia  on  James 
River  in  1607.  The  first  result  of  American  com- 
munism there  inaugurated  was  a  failure,  and  never 
since  have  communistic  settlements  proved  success- 
ful in  the  new  world.  Individual  ownership  of  prop- 
erty and  the  final  overthrow  of  the  company  itself 
followed,  but  the  good  work  of  the  company  in  estab- 
lishing representative  government  was  left  as  a 
monument  to  its  efforts.  The  rapid  growth  of  Vir- 
ginia under  representative  government  was  a  stimu- 
lus to  other  schemes  of  colonization  in  the  nature 
of  proprietaries,  resulting  in  the  planting  of  Mary- 
land in  1634  as  an  individual  proprietary  under  Lord 
Baltimore,  and  the  planting  of  the  Carolinas  as  a 
partnership  proprietary  in  1663  under  eight  Lords 
Proprietors.  Both  Maryland  and  the  Carolinas  were 
carved  out  of  territory  originally  granted  to  Vir- 
ginia in  her  charter  and  were  settled  for  like  pur- 
poses, the  chief  one  being  the  development  of  English 
commerce. 

Quite  different  was  New  England,  which,  taken  all 
in  all,  developed  from  the  settling  in  the  new  world  of 
men  fleeing  from  religious  persecutions,  dissenters  or 
would-be  dissenters  coming  to  America  to  establish 
permanent  homes  and  a  government  or  governments 
of  a  semi-theocratic  order.  Such  was  the  Plymouth 
Colony  of  1620,  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  of 
1628,  the  New  Haven  Colony  of  1638,  while  Connec- 
ticut, settled  in  1634,  and  Rhode  Island,  in  1636, 
were  but  colonies  of  dissenters  from  dissenters.  In 
the  early  planting  of  the  colonies  of  the  South,  no 
such  condition  was  seen  save  in  Maryland  where 
the  first  Lord  Baltimore,  when  he  applied  for  a  grant 
of  land  in  the  new  world,  undoubtedly  was  thinking 
more  of  a  haven  for  Catholics  than  a  colony  for  his 
own  enrichment.  The  later  proprietors,  however, 
were  considering  their  private  interests  to  a  much 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  xxvn 

greater  extent  than  the  question  of  any  religious 
impulse.  One  of  the  fundamental  facts,  therefore, 
of  American  history  is  that  from  the  very  beginning 
there  was  a  wide  divergence  between  the  Northern 
and  Southern  colonists  in  purpose  and  spirit.  The 
Northerners  were  home-seekers  and  English  dis- 
contents; the  Southerners  were  money-seekers,  in 
touch  and  sympathy  with  the  home  government,  and 
with  them  naturally  came  a  number  of  adventurers. 
Between  these  Southern  colonies  and  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies,  the  English  later  established  other 
colonies,  New  York  settled  by  the  Dutch  in  1614 
being  conquered  in  1664  in  order  that  the  English 
might  control  the  Atlantic  coast,  while  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania  were  settled  partly  for  private 
gain  and  partly  for  religious  reasons ;  for  to  William 
Penn,  a  mixture  of  the  shrewd  business  man  and  a 
devout  Quaker  preacher,  we  owe  more  than  to  any- 
one else  the  settlement  by  the  English  of  the  colonies 
which  have  grown  into  the  three  states  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania  and  Delaware. 

The  Spirit  of  Expansion. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  life  of  the  South 
was  extensive,  wandering,  roving,  expansive;  while 
the  tendency  of  New  England  was  intensive.  Cli- 
matic conditions  and  the  resulting  natural  pursuits 
of  life  had  much  to  do  with  this  fact  of  Southern 
history.  Cold  New  England  was  not  suited  to  agri- 
cultural pursuits  and  the  people  were  forced  into 
towns  to  devote  themselves  to  small  industries 
and  to  seafaring.  The  Southern  people  lived  apart, 
the  lands  being  fertile  and  profitable,  and  after  the 
first  ten  years  of  communism  in  Virginia,  it  was 
seen  that  to  succeed  the  colony  must  encourage  agri- 
culture. Hence  we  find  that,  though  the  population 
rapidly  increased  in  the  Southern  colonies,  the  new 


xxvin  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

settlers  moved  constantly  westward,  and  the  density 
of  the  poulation  changed  but  slightly,  while  in  the 
New  England  colonies  the  density  of  population  was 
constantly  growing.  The  expansive  spirit  of  the  Vir- 
ginians and  the  Carolinians  resulted  in  the  settle- 
ment of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  just  before  the 
Revolutionary  War  and  in  the  seizure  of  the  great 
Northwest  Territory  by  Virginia  troops  during  the 
struggle  against  England.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Vir- 
ginians had  before  the  Revolution  partly  occupied 
and  claimed  all  of  the  Northwest  Territory  from 
which  have  been  carved  the  five  splendid  states  of 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wisconsin. 
This  western  movement  on  the  part  of  the  English 
in  North  America  began  with  the  Eighteenth  cen- 
tury in  the  Southern  colonies,  notably  Virginia,  and 
was  aided  somewhat  by  migrations  from  Pennsyl- 
vania. But,  generally  speaking,  it  is  due  to  the 
South  even  in  colonial  days  that  the  English  showed 
their  expansive  tendencies  in  America.  The  explor- 
ing expedition  of  Alexander  Spotswood  in  1716  into 
the  Shenandoah  Valley,  the  expulsion  of  the  Tusca- 
roras  from  the  Carolinas  resulting  in  the  western 
movement  there,  the  settlement  of  the  Watauga  Dis- 
trict, the  migration  of  some  Virginians  to  lands 
along  the  head  waters  of  the  Ohio  and  the  occupancy 
of  Kentucky  by  Daniel  Boone  were  but  indications 
of  the  Southerners'  desire  for  more  land, — a  desire 
that  led  George  Rogers  Clark  into  the  Northwest 
Territory,  that  caused  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana, 
and  finally  the  annexation  of  Texas.  In  not  one  of 
these  movements  could  New  England  be  considered 
a  part. 

The  Government  of  Southern  Colonies. 

The  last  of  the  Southern  colonies  was  Georgia, 
established  in  the  year  of  the  birth  of  our  great 
Washington.  It  was  established  under  somewhat 


INTEODUCTOBY  OUTLINE. 

different  conditions  from  the  rest  of  the  Southern 
colonies,  the  movement  leading  to  the  planting  of 
that  colony  being  humanitarian,  the  desire  being  to 
establish  a  colony  where  debtor  prisoners  particu- 
larly might  get  a  new  start  in  life.  The  settlement 
was  undertaken  by  an  association  of  benevolent  per- 
sons organized  into  a  corporation  but  with  no  desire 
to  make  money.  In  a  little  while  it  seemed  desirable 
to  change  the  mode  of  government,  and  Georgia  fol- 
lowed in  the  same  steps  as  the  other  colonies.  In 
other  words,  Virginia  under  the  London  Company 
and  the  Carolinas  under  the  proprietaries  had  not 
prospered  and  had  passed  into  royal  provinces  under 
the  government  of  the  king,  Maryland  being  the  only 
one  of  the  Southern  colonies  that  was  a  pro- 
prietary at  the  time  of  the  Eevolution,  though  for 
a  period,  from  1690  to  1715,  it  was  a  royal  province. 
This  in  itself  was  different,  on  the  whole,  from 
the  New  England  colonies  where  the  charter  colony 
prevailed  and  the  royal  province  was  obnoxious. 
The  Southern  people  preferred  government  directly 
from  the  crown;  preferred  in  a  sense  to  have  the 
same  relation  to  the  king  that  the  people  of  England 
themselves  had.  The  commercial  enterprises  fail- 
ing, they  wished  to  be  subjects  of  the  king.  Their 
institutional  development  was,  therefore,  different 
from  that  of  New  England  and  more  like  that  of 
the  mother  country.  As  everything  in  England  was 
centered  in  the  hands  of  the  crown  and  parliament, 
so  everything  in  the  Southern  colonies  was  centered 
in  the  hands  of  the  royal  governor  and  the  General 
Assembly.  The  people  of  New  England,  however, 
turned  back  to  an  older  form  of  English  government, 
the  local  township  system,  and  local  government  was 
in  a  sense  more  important  than  that  of  the  central 
government  under  the  governor  and  the  General  As- 
sembly. Especially  was  this  true  in  Massachusetts 


xxx  INTKODUCTOBY  OUTLINE. 

after  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  in  1692,  were 
compelled  to  accept  a  governor  appointed  by  the 
king.  The  unit  in  the  South  was  the  county,  and  all 
local  government  was  determined  by  legislative  en- 
actment of  the  General  Assembly,  while  the  officers 
in  the  county  were  usually  appointed  by  the  royal 
governors.  This,  of  course,  gave  rise  to  some  dis- 
sension, but  it  showed  that,  in  general,  the  Southern 
colonies  were  each  trying  to  be  a  miniature  English 
kingdom,  though  without  a  class  of  nobles  or  privi- 
leged orders,  but  with  an  established  Church.  Still 
there  was  as  much  of  an  aristocracy  in  the  South  in 
government  as  there  was  in  England,  each  Southern 
colony  restricting  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the  land 
owners.  The  ruling  class  of  New  England  in  early 
colonial  days  was  limited  to  church  members. 

The  South  in  the  Revolution. 

In  the  South  there  was  an  inherent  love  of  Eng- 
land, in  New  England  a  bitter  antagonism;  there- 
fore the  opening  of  the  Eevolutionary  period  found 
the  Southern  people  greatly  in  sympathy  with  Eng- 
lish government  while  the  people  of  New  England 
were  at  discord  with  it.  Against  the  Stamp  Act  and 
the  other  measures  leading  to  the  Revolution,  the 
South  showed  opposition  in  somewhat  the  same  spirit 
as  when  the  Englishmen  first  began  to  resist  King 
Charles  I.,  later  James  It.,  and  as  some  at  the  time 
of  the  Eevolution  were  doing  with  reference  to  George 
III.  Southerners  looked  upon  their  fight  as  a  struggle 
for  the  rights  of  Englishmen,  and  it  was  only  gradu- 
ally that  they  were  brought  to  a  conception  of  a  desire 
for  independence.  The  wish  for  independence  was 
probably  not  so  quickly  born  in  the  South  as  in  New 
England,  but  when  once  desired  it  was  more  readily 
demonstrated.  The  outcome  was  that  the  Southern 
states  were  the  first  to  call  for  a  Declaration  of  In- 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  xxxi 

dependence,  and  Southern  leaders  were  among  the 
strongest  advocates  of  independence.  North  Caro- 
lina and  Virginia  early  asked  that  independence  be 
established,  and  Henry,  Rutledge  and  Jefferson  were 
ready  for  the  movement  for  which  doubtless  John 
Hancock  and  Samuel  and  John  Adams  had  fre- 
quently prayed.  In  the  Revolutionary  War,  the 
South  furnished  her  part  of  the  troops  and  the  lead- 
ers, giving  the  peerless  Washington  as  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  armies  of  the  united  colonies,  while 
Virginia,  on  her  own  responsibility,  conquered  the 
Northwest  Territory,  thus  saving  it  from  becoming 
a  part  of  Canada.  When  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  was  accomplished,  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation had  finally  gone  into  operation  by  the 
ratification  of  Maryland.  The  government  was  a 
loose  confederation,  Congress  having  no  power  to 
enforce  its  acts  or  regulations,  and  to  the  states 
themselves  was  left  the  power  to  decide  whether  or 
not  they  would  obey  the  mandates  of  the  Congress. 
The  result  was  that  in  many  instances  Con- 
gressional action  was  absolutely  ignored,  hence  a 
new  form  of  government  was  imperative.  Among 
the  first  to  take  the  lead  was  Virginia,  on  whose  sug- 
gestion a  convention  met  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  in  1786, 
to  discuss  the  affairs  of  the  country.  The  outcome 
of  this  conference  was  the  Philadelphia  Convention 
of  1787  and  the  drafting  of  the  document  known  to 
us  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Over 
this  convention  George  Washington  presided,  while 
the  main  principles  of  the  constitution  were  taken 
from  the  plan  drawn  by  James  Madison.  The  new 
constitution  went  into  effect  on  the  ratification  of 
eleven  states,  two  not  coming  in  until  after  Wash- 
ington had  been  inaugurated  President — North 
Carolina  in  the  South  and  Rhode  Island  in  the 
North. 


xxxn  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

What  It  Meant  to  the  South  to  Join  tne  Union. 

The  close  of  the  Eevolutionary  War  saw  the 
United  States  with  an  area  of  827,844  square  miles, 
of  which  area  the  Southern  states  contained  402,985 
square  miles.  The  population  in  1790  was  3,926,214, 
of  which  population  the  South  contained  1,792,710. 
There  were  757,208  negroes  in  the  United  States  in 
1790,  all  of  whom  lived  in  the  South,  except  about 
42,000.  In  other  words,  about  one-third  of  the 
white  population  of  the  country  resided  in  the  South ; 
that  is,  the  white  population  of  the  North  was  about 
twice  the  white  population  of  the  South  which  had 
control  of  the  affairs  of  state,  for  the  other  portion 
of  its  population  was  its  property.  Before  1790,  all 
the  states  in  the  North  had  abolished  slavery  except 
New  York  and  New  Jersey,  the  former  not  abolish- 
ing it  until  1799  and  the  latter  not  until  1804.  We 
should  probably  consider  Delaware  as  a  Northern 
state,  and  it  did  not  abolish  slavery  until  forced  to 
do  so  by  the  Thirteenth  amendment.  Thus  with  the 
opening  of  the  Nineteenth  century,  not  including 
little  Delaware,  all  the  Northern  states  were  free 
from  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  its  burden  was 
placed  entirely  upon  the  Southern  people.  Hence 
the  observant  one  could  see,  when  the  United  States 
was  organized,  that  the  slavery  question  was  to  be 
an  important  one,  and  the  South  on  entering  the 
Union  played  a  most  hazardous  game. 

In  the  convention  itself  at  Philadelphia,  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery  was  a  vital  one,  because  the  South 
was  unwilling  that  its  slave  population  should  be 
ignored  in  the  apportionment  of  representation  in 
Congress,  and  a  compromise  was  effected  whereby 
five  slaves  should  count  in  the  apportionment  as  the 
equivalent  of  three  whites.  It  was  also  agreed  in 
the  nature  of  a  compromise  between  extreme  slavery 
and  anti-slavery  men  that  the  slave  trade  should  be 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  xxxm 

allowed  to  continue  for  twenty  years.  There  was  a 
decided  sentiment  on  the  part  of  certain  leaders, 
both  North  and  South,  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  but  on  the  other 
hand  it  was  clearly  understood  that  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment should  in  no  way  interfere  with  slaves  in 
the  states,  and  upon  this  principle,  definitely  fixed 
in  their  minds  and  consciences,  the  Southern  people 
entered  into  the  Union  cordially  and  heartily  for 
the  most  part,  but  with  fear  and  trepidation  in  the 
minds  of  some.  To  the  South  the  notion  of  sovereign 
independent  states  entering  into  a  Federal  Union  of 
defined  limited  powers  was  a  clear  concept,  and  was 
probably  so  understood  by  the  North  at  the  time  of 
the  adoption  of  the  constitution.  But  the  admission 
of  the  states  of  the  Northwest,  which  knew  no  exist- 
ence outside  of  the  Union,  minimized  the  importance 
of  the  concept  of  an  independent  state,  and  during 
a  period  of  seventy  years  many  Northern  people  lost 
the  conception  of  a  Federal  government  and  recog- 
nized only  a  national  existence.  The  United  States 
government  was  no  longer  an  "experiment." 

History  does  not  portray  as  faithfully  as  it  should 
the  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  the  South  in  entering 
into  the  Federal  Union.  "When  one  recalls  that,  in 
1780,  Georgia  included  the  present  Alabama  and 
Mississippi,  that  North  Carolina  owned  Tennessee, 
and  that  Virginia  possessed  what  is  now  the  present 
states  of  West  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  and  had  good 
claim  to  the  entire  Northwest  Territory,  it  is  easy 
to  realize  that,  had  these  three  states,  together  with 
South  Carolina,  desired  to  organize  themselves  into 
a  republic,  the  United  States  as  we  know  it  to-day 
would  never  have  come  into  being.  The  Northwest 
Territory  and  the  Southern  states  were  a  good  three- 
fourths  of  the  area  of  the  United  States  in  1790. 
The  South  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  a  great  Fed- 


xxxiv  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

eral  government,  and  confidingly  it  did  its  part  in 
the  establishment  of  the  United  States. 

Southern  Statesmen  in  American  History. 

The  South  furnished  to  the  Union  its  Washington 
to  be  its  first  President,  its  Jefferson  as  the  first 
secretary  of  state,  its  Edmund  Kandolph  as  the  first 
attorney-general,  its  Madison  to  shape  legislation  in 
the  first  House  of  Representatives.  In  a  few  years 
after  the  Federal  government  had  been  formed,  it 
furnished  John  Marshall  as  chief  justice  to  so  con- 
strue the  law  that  the  Federal  government  became 
as  strong  and  binding  as  if  a  nation  had  been  created 
in  the  beginning. 

As  the  country  grew,  the  population  of  the  South 
did  not  increase  as  rapidly  as  it  did  in  the  North, 
for  in  1790  the  population  of  the  two  sections  was 
nearly  equal,  but  by  1860  the  population  of  the  South 
was  12,103,147  and  of  the  rest  of  the  country  19,340,- 
174.  It  is  thus  seen  that  the  great  movements  of 
population  were  to  the  North  and  West  rather  than 
to  the  South.  The  South,  however,  though  its  popu- 
lation in  seventy  years  decreased  from  one-half  to 
nearly  one-third  of  the  entire  population  of  the  coun- 
try, maintained  a  greater  influence  in  the  affairs  of 
the  government,  in  proportion  to  her  population, 
than  any  other  section  of  the  country.  Especially 
to  be  considered  is  the  fact  that  when  the  slave  popu- 
lation is  subtracted,  the  North  and  West  always 
had  more  than  three  times  as  large  a  population  of 
citizens.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  may  note  the 
following  suggestive  facts: 

Of  the  twenty-five  occupants  of  the  White  House,  the  South  has  con- 
tributed ten:  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Jackson,  Will- 
iam Henry  Harrison,  Tyler,  Polk,  Taylor  and  Johnson;  none  elected 
since  the  War  of  Secession,  and  all  within  the  period  of  eighty  years 
from  1789-1869.  Southern  Presidents  held  the  reins  of  government  for 
nearly  fifty-three  years. 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  xxxv 

Of  the  twenty-six  vice-presidents,  seven  were  from  the  South:  Jeffer- 
Bon,  Calhoun,  R.  M.  Johnson,  King,  Tyler,  Breckenridge  and  Andrew 
Johnson. 

Of  forty  secretaries  of  state,  the  South  furnished  twelve,  as  follows: 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Edmund  Randolph,  John  Marshall,  James  Madison, 
Robert  Smith,  James  Monroe,  Henry  Clay,  Edward  Livingston,  John 
Forsyth,  Abel  P.  Upshur,  John  C.  Calhoun  and  Hugh  S.  Legar£. 

Of  the  forty-three  secretaries  of  war,  the  South  furnished  fifteen,  as 
follows:  James  McHenry,  James  Monroe,  William  H.  Crawford,  John  C. 
Calhoun,  James  Barbour,  John  H.  Eaton,  Joel  R.  Poinsett,  John  Bell, 
George  W.  Crawford,  Charles  M.  Conrad,  Jefferson  Davis,  John  B. 
Floyd,  Joseph  Holt,  Stephen  B.  Elkins  and  Luke  E.  Wright;  none 
since  1860  except  Elkins  and  Wright. 

Of  the  thirty-seven  secretaries  of  the  navy,  there  have  been  sixteen 
from  the  South:  Benjamin  Stoddert,  Robert  Smith,  Paul  Hamilton,  John 
Branch,  George  E.  Badger,  Abel  P.  Upshur,  Thomas  W.  Gilmer,  John 
Y.  Mason,  William  B.  Preston,  William  A.  Graham,  John  P.  Kennedy, 
James  C.  Dobbin,  Nathan  Goff,  Jr.,  William  H.  Hunt,  Hilary  A.  Herbert 
and  Charles  J.  Bonaparte.  Four  of  these  were  since  the  War  of  Seces- 
sion. 

Of  the  twenty-two  secretaries  of  the  ulterior,  the  South  contributed 
nine,  as  follows:  A.  H.  H.  Stewart,  Jacob  Thompson,  Carl  Schurz,  L.  Q. 
C.  Lamar,  John  W.  Noble,  Hoke  Smith,  James  A.  Pearce,  D.  R.  Francis 
and  E.  A.  Hitchcock. 

Of  the  forty-two  secretaries  of  the  treasury,  ten  were  from  the  South: 
George  W.  Campbell,  William  H.  Crawford,  Roger  B.  Taney,  George  M. 
Bibb,  Robert  J.  Walker,  James  Guthrie,  Howell  Cobb,  Philip  F.  Thomas, 
Benjamin  H.  Bristow  and  John  G.  Carlisle;  two  since  1860,  Bristow  and 
Carlisle,  both  of  Kentucky. 

Of  forty-two  postmasters-general,  the  South  has  furnished  fourteen, 
as  follows:  Joseph  Habersham,  William  T.  Barry,  Amos  Kendall,  Charles 
A.  Wickliffe,  Cave  Johnson,  Aaron  V.  Brown,  Joseph  Holt,  John  A.  J. 
Creswell,  James  W.  Marshall,  David  M.  Key,  Horace  Maynard,  Mont- 
gomery Blair,  William  L.  Wilson  and  James  A.  Gary.  Of  the  twenty 
since  the  war,  six  were  from  the  South. 

Of  the  four  secretaries  of  agriculture,  there  has  been  from  the  South 
one,  Norman  J.  Colman. 

Of  the  forty-four  attorneys-general,  the  South  furnished  eighteen, 
as  follows:  Edmund  Randolph,  Charles  Lee,  John  Breckenridge,  William 
Pinckney,  William  Wirt,  John  M.  Berrien,  Roger  B.  Taney,  Felix 
Grundy,  John  J.  Crittenden,  Hugh  S.  Legarg,  John  Nelson,  John  Y. 
Mason,  Reverdy  Johnson,  Edward  Bates,  James  Speed,  Amos  T.  Aker- 
man,  Augustus  H.  Garland  and  Charles  J.  Bonaparte.  Three  out  of 
ten  since  the  war. 

Of  the  eight  chief  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  South  furnished 
three,  John  Rutledge,  John  Marshall  and  Roger  B.  Taney. 

Of  thirty-five  speakers  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  fifteen  have 
come  from  the  South,  Nathaniel  Macon,  Henry  Clay,  Langdon  Cheves, 


xxxvi  INTEODUCTOEY  OUTLINE. 

P.  P.  Barbour,  Andrew  Stevenson,  John  Bell,  James  K.  Polk,  R.  M.  T. 
Hunter,  John  White,  John  W.  Jones,  Howell  Cobb,  Linn  Boyd,  James 
L.  Orr,  John  G.  Carlisle  and  Charles  F.  Crisp.  For  fifty-eight  years  out 
of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  existence  of  Congress,  Southern- 
ers have  presided. 

Of  forty-four  ministers  to  Great  Britain,  six  only  have  hailed  from  the 
South,  and  of  forty  ministers  to  France,  as  many  as  seventeen  were  from 
the  South. 

These  long  lists  will  clearly  demonstrate  that  in 
the  political  life  of  the  nation  as  a  whole  the  South 
has  not  been  backward.  In  proportion  to  its  white 
population,  it  gave  more  than  its  share  of  leaders 
before  1860,  but  since  that  date  it  has  not  been  recog- 
nized to  any  extent  in  the  government. 

Southern  View  of  the  United  States  Government. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment under  the  constitution,  Southern  leaders  have 
been  custodians,  as  it  were,  of  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States.  When  Washington  was  undecided 
as  to  the  right  of  Congress  to  pass  certain  measures, 
he  took  the  written  opinion  of  two  secretaries,  Mr. 
Jefferson  of  the  State  Department,  and  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton of  the  Treasury  Department.  Mr.  Jefferson's 
opinion  was  that  Congress  could  not  legislate  beyond 
the  definite  prescribed  powers  granted  it  in  the  con- 
stitution, while  Mr.  Hamilton  held  the  view  that 
whatever  was  for  the  general  welfare  of  the  country 
lay  within  the  purview  of  the  Federal  Congress.  Here 
was  a  line  of  demarcation.  The  Jeffersonian  view 
was  held  from  1790  to  1860  quite  consistently  in  the 
South,  while  the  North  vacillated  from  Hamilton's 
view  to  Jefferson's  and  back  again.  It  is  true  that 
one  Virginian  was  strongly  Hamiltonian,  and  for- 
tunately for  a  strong  Federal  government  he  was 
chief  justice  of  the  country  for  thirty  years.  It  was 
during  this  long  period  of  chief  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  that  Marshall  so  construed  the  con- 
stitution as  to  broaden  the  scope  of  Congress  and  to 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  xxxvn 

strengthen  the  Federal  government,  but  Southern 
legislatures  and  Southern  statesmen  were  consistent 
in  their  views,  demanding  a  strict  construction  of  the 
constitution. 

When  the  alien  and  sedition  laws  were  passed,  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky  championed  state  rights  and  in 
the  Kentucky  resolutions  of  1798-99  and  the  Virginia 
resolutions  of  1798-99  they  set  forth  the  Southern 
doctrine,  clearly  demonstrating  that  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment was  a  creature  of  the  states.  The  Federal- 
ists winced  under  this  doctrine,  but  though  they 
never  conceded  in  words  the  soundness  of  it,  the 
fact  that  the  Federal  Congress  repealed  the  alien 
and  sedition  laws  was  in  a  sense  an  acknowledgment 
of  its  correctness.  Such  a  doctrine,  if  accepted  by 
all,  would  have  led  to  the  peaceable  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  or  would  have  kept  Congress  from  interfer- 
ing with  state  affairs.  There  seemed,  however,  to 
have  been  on  the  part  of  neither  Virginia  nor  Ken- 
tucky, in  passing  these  resolutions,  any  notion  of  a 
formal  secession  from  the  Union,  though  some  Vir- 
ginians (notably  John  Taylor,  of  Caroline,  who  as 
early  as  1796  had  suggested  to  Mr.  Jefferson  that 
it  might  be  wise  for  Virginia  and  North  Carolina 
to  secede  from  the  Union  and  unite  to  form  a  new 
republic)  did  dream  of  separation  from  the  Union. 
Jefferson,  however,  was  always  a  Union  man.  The 
South  regarded  the  Federal  government  as  a  great 
experiment  but  thought  that  the  states  for  the  sake 
of  union  should  be  long-suffering  and  forbearing, 
demanding  their  rights  in  Congress.  At  times,  some 
of  the  leaders  of  New  England  accepted  the  doctrine 
of  state  sovereignty  as  fully  as  it  was  ever  asserted 
in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions,  notably 
Josiah  Quincy  of  Massachusetts,  who  probably  was 
the  first  man  ever  to  suggest  in  the  halls  of  Congress 
any  proposition  of  secession.  In  the  debate  of  1811 


xxxvni  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

for  the  admission  of  Louisiana  as  a  state  in  the 
Union,  he  declared: 

"If  this  bill  passes,  it  is  my  deliberate  opinion  that  it  is  virtually  a 
dissolution  of  this  Union,  that  it  will  free  the  states  from  their  moral 
obligations,  and  as  it  will  be  the  right  of  all,  so  it  will  be  the  duty  of 
some,  definitely  to  prepare  for  a  separation,  amicably  if  they  can,  vio- 
lently if  they  must." 

In  the  midst  of  the  "War  of  1812,  Massachusetts 
by  vote  of  her  legislature  called  for  a  convention  of 
the  New  England  states.  On  Dec.  15,  1814,  dele- 
gates from  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island,  with  unofficial  representatives  from  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont,  met  at  Hartford,  and  de- 
clared that  "states  which  have  no  common  umpire 
must  be  their  own  judges  and  execute  their  own 
decisions" — the  same  doctrine  as  enunciated  by  the 
Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions.  A  number  of 
amendments  to  the  constitution  were  proposed.  Be- 
hind the  declarations  of  the  Hartford  Convention 
"was  the  implied  intention  to  withdraw  from  the 
Union"  if  its  demands  were  not  accepted  by  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States.  Again,  when  the 
question  of  acquiring  territory  from  Mexico  was  be- 
ing discussed  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  John 
Quincy  Adams  suggested  that  New  England  might 
secede  from  the  Union.  In  the  early  days  of  the 
republic,  however,  the  South  evidently  did  not  favor 
anything  looking  to  secession  but  rather  the  asser- 
tion of  the  rights  of  the  states  by  their  legislatures 
in  something  approaching  nullification,  and  the  Ken- 
tucky and  Virginia  resolutions  bore  fruit  in  the 
South  Carolina  nullification. 

Slavery  Agitation  Makes  Sentiment  for  Secession. 

That  which  brought  the  South  to  a  consideration 
of  secession  as  a  practical  solution  of  its  difficulties 
came  out  of  the  attack  on  an  institution  which  un- 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  xxxix 

fortunately  had  been  fastened  upon  it — the  long  and 
bitter  controversy  over  slavery.  The  petition  of 
the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  to  the  first  Federal 
Congress  asking  for  abolition  of  slavery  was  met 
with  a  declaration  that  slavery  was  a  state  institu- 
tion and  not  to  be  disturbed  by  Federal  legislation. 
This  was  the  Southern  point  of  view.  The  South- 
erners accepted  in  good  faith  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  because  it  was  provided  for  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States.  But  when  Missouri 
applied  for  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  slave 
state  and  Congress  desired  to  exclude  it,  or  to  admit 
it  only  if  slavery  should  be  abolished  in  its  limits, 
a  new  question  arose — the  question  of  whether  it 
was  within  the  province  of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment to  deal  with  slavery  in  the  territories  or  in 
territories  applying  as  states  for  admission  into  the 
Union.  The  question  was  really  never  presented  to 
the  courts  but  was  settled  by  a  compromise,  it  being 
agreed  that  Missouri  should  be  admitted  as  a  slave 
state,  but  that  slavery  should  be  shut  out  of  all  other 
territories  north  of  the  southern  boundary  of  Mis- 
souri. The  Southern  people  as  a  whole  were  satis- 
fied with  this  compromise,  though  there  were  many 
who,  at  the  time  the  measure  passed  in  Congress, 
regarded  it  as  unconstitutional  and  as  a  very  danger- 
ous precedent,  notably  John  Eandolph,  of  Eoanoke, 
and  John  Taylor,  of  Caroline.  The  former  though 
favorable  to  all  movements  for  emancipation  of 
slaves  (for  at  his  death  he  liberated  his  own)  felt 
that  the  United  States  government  had  no  constitu- 
tional right  to  interfere  with  slavery  either  in  the 
states  or  territories.  John  Taylor  in  his  writings 
on  the  constitution  declared  that  Marshall 's  decision 
in  the  case  of  McCullough  vs.  Maryland  and  the  pass- 
ing by  Congress  of  the  Missouri  compromise  were 
preparing  the  way  to  break  down  the  Federal  govern- 


XL  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

ment  to  be  followed  either  by  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union  or  by  a  centralized  national  government  which 
had  not  been  contemplated  by  the  "fathers." 

At  this  period  of  our  history  a  great  industrial 
revolution  began  in  the  South.  Through  the  use  of 
the  cotton-gin,  first  invented  by  Whitney  in  1793, 
cotton  production  became  more  profitable  and  the 
crop  doubled  from  1810  to  1820,  and  from  1820  to 
1840  quadrupled,  increasing  from  400,000  to  1,634,- 
954  bales.  The  labor  saved  by  the  invention  of  the 
reaper  by  McCormick  in  1831  made  possible  a  won- 
derful increase  in  the  production  of  wheat  in  all 
parts  of  the  United  States,  especially  the  North. 
The  natural  result  of  this  revolution  both  North  and 
South  was  an  increased  demand  for  labor.  In  the 
South  there  was  a  call  for  more  slaves  for  the  cotton 
fields.  Almost  simultaneously  with  the  new  industrial 
conditions  came  the  Garrison  abolition  movement. 
Some  slight  slave  insurrections  in  the  South  caused 
an  uneasiness  among  the  planter  class,  and  a  belief 
that  the  abolitionists  of  the  North  were  really  in 
favor  of  liberating  the  slaves  at  whatever  expense, 
either  by  slave  insurrections  or  a  breaking  down  of 
the  Federal  government.  In  fact,  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  recognizing  that  the  constitution  upheld 
slavery  in  the  states,  characterized  it  "as  an  agree- 
ment with  death  and  a  covenant  with  hell!" 

At  first  the  abolition  movement  made  no  serious 
impression,  however,  upon  the  Federal  government ; 
but  when  Texas  was  admitted  to  the  Union  in  1845 
as  a  slave  state,  and  shortly  thereafter  the  country 
was  at  war  with  Mexico,  a  war  which  was  advocated 
by  Southerners  and  maintained  chiefly  by  them,  the 
abolition  sentiment  of  the  North  manifested  itself 
strongly  in  Congress  in  opposition  to  acquiring  more 
territory  into  which  slaves  could  be  carried.  The 
abolition  leaders  believed  that  the  expansion  of  the 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  XLi 

United  States  dictated  by  Southerners  had  been  for 
the  sake  of  slavery.  As  they  conceived  it,  Jefferson 
had  purchased  the  Louisiana  territory  in  1803  to 
please  the  South  and  out  of  that  territory  had  been 
made  three  slave  states,  Louisiana,  Missouri  and  Ar- 
kansas. The  annexation  of  Texas  added  to  the 
United  States  an  area  of  265,780  square  miles  open 
to  slaves,  and  the  result  of  the  Mexican  War  in- 
dicated that  much  more  territory  would  be  added; 
hence  David  Wilmot,  a  strong  anti- slavery  leader 
from  Pennsylvania,  introduced  into  the  House  of 
Representatives  a  measure  that  if  any  new  territory 
should  be  acquired  from  Mexico  it  should  not  be 
opened  to  slavery.  The  opposition  to  slavery  was 
so  strong  that  this  measure  passed  the  lower  House 
but  failed  to  be  approved  by  the  Senate.  The  result 
of  the  war  with  Mexico  was  the  annexation  of  what 
is  now  California,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Nevada 
and  Utah.  Including  Texas,  the  increase  in  the  area 
of  the  United  States  from  1840  to  1850  was  921,907 
square  miles,  a  territory  greater  by  100,000  square 
miles  than  the  original  United  States  in  1790.  Since 
the  formation  of  the  United  States,  the  territory 
annexed  amounted  to  2,153,106  square  miles,  nearly 
three  times  the  original  area  of  the  United  States. 
Of  this  area,  496,445  square  miles  was  open  to  sla- 
very, while  by  the  Missouri  Compromise  1,000,534 
square  miles  had  been  exempt  from  slavery.  The 
question  now  was  what  should  be  done  with  the  new 
territory  of  656,227  square  miles  acquired  from 
Mexico.  The  matter  was  brought  to  a  head  by  Cali- 
fornia in  1850  applying  for  admission  into  the  Union 
as  a  free  state.  After  stormy  debates  in  Congress, 
California  was  admitted  as  a  free  state  and  the 
question  of  slavery  in  the  other  territory  acquired 
from  Mexico  was  left  unsettled.  In  the  eyes  of  the 
Southerners  this  restriction  on  their  institution  was 


XLII  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

too  great,  and  a  convention  of  all  the  Southern  states 
met  at  Nashville  in  1850  to  discuss  the  matter,  but 
it  was  not  secession  in  spirit.  By  the  compromise 
of  1850,  a  sop  was  thrown  to  the  Southern  people 
in  a  more  stringent  fugitive-slave  law  which  was  in 
every  way  constitutional  but  which  Northern  states 
ignored,  most  of  them  passing  personal  liberty  acts 
which  really  prevented  the  apprehension  of  fugitive 
slaves.  In  1854,  through  the  influence  of  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  Congress  passed  a  bill  providing  for  the 
organization  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  into  terri- 
tories and  leaving  the  question  open  as  to  slavery. 
Then  followed  a  mad  rush  on  the  part  both  of  aboli- 
tionists and  slaveholders  to  see  who  could  secure 
these  territories.  Over  the  admission  of  Kansas  as 
a  state  came  a  fight  in  Congress  which  could  not  be 
settled  until  after  the  Southern  states  had  seceded. 
In  the  meantime  by  the  Dred  Scott  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  the  Missouri 
Compromise  was  declared  unconstitutional  and  all 
the  territories  of  the  United  States  were  opened  to 
slavery.  In  other  words,  the  Supreme  Court  had 
accepted  the  Southern  position.  This  decision  made 
the  Republican  party  and  was  followed  by  Lincoln's 
election  resulting  in  secession. 

The  Meaning  of  the  South's  Attitude  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. 

The  one  great  fact  of  Southern  history  which  has 
not  been  emphasized  as  it  should  be,  is  that  from 
1789  to  1860  the  South  had  not  fought  to  break 
down  the  constitution  or  to  break  down  the  Federal 
government,  but  to  maintain  the  constitution  and  to 
maintain  a  Federal  government.  Its  policy  during 
these  years  in  Congress  was  to  demand  that  the  con- 
stitution be  preserved,  that  state  institutions  should 
not  be  interfered  with,  and  that  the  constitution 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  XLIII 

should  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  its  adoption. 
A  Southern  history,  therefore,  must  tell  in  a  dis- 
passionate way  these  facts,  and  must  save  from 
future  prejudices  any  impression  which  may  prevail 
that  the  South  was  fighting  for  human  slavery  with- 
out regard  to  constitutional  right  or  without  love 
of  the  Federal  government.  In  other  words,  had 
the  people  of  the  North  been  willing  to  have  abided 
by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  by  the 
decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  to  have  en- 
forced the  law  of  the  United  States  with  reference 
to  fugitive  slaves,  the  South  would  not  have  seceded. 
The  contribution  of  the  South,  therefore,  before  1860 
to  the  political  history  of  this  country  was  its  efforts, 
to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  states  as  such  and  to 
prevent  centralization  of  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
Federal  government.  The  War  of  Secession  resulted 
from  the  election  of  a  President  on  a  platform  to 
exclude  slaves  from  the  territories  in  opposition  to 
a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The  demand  of 
the  South  before  1860  for  a  strict  construction  of 
the  constitution  was,  therefore,  a  valuable  asset  to 
the  country  at  large,  and  to-day  it  is  still  of  great 
importance. 

The  rights  of  the  states  as  such  and  the  province 
of  the  Federal  government  as  such  are  yet  vital 
questions.  The  best  lawyers  of  the  land  to-day  re- 
cognize that  the  Southern  view  of  the  constitution 
was  the  correct  one,  and  constant  appeal  is  being 
made  to  maintain  state  rights,  and  to  prevent  any- 
thing like  the  establishment  of  imperialistic  ideas 
in  the  nation.  There  is  pending  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  at  present  a  case  with 
reference  to  passenger  rates  fixed  by  the  corporation 
commission  of  Virginia  for  the  railroads  within  the 
state.  As  yet  the  matter  is  not  entirely  settled,  an 
important  point  being  the  question  of  the  right  of 


XLIV  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

the  individual  state.  Such  decision  as  has  already 
been  rendered  recognizes  certain  state  rights,  yet 
inasmuch  as  the  court  declared  that  a  single  judge 
of  a  subordinate  court  of  the  United  States  can  en- 
join an  order  entered  by  the  highest  court  of  a 
state,  one  is  compelled  to  look  askance  and  wonder 
to  what  extent  our  state  governments  may  be  humil- 
iated by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
While  it  is  recognized  that  the  War  of  Secession 
forever  killed  state  rights  in  the  sense  of  any  state 
peaceably  seceding  from  the  Union,  still  it  was  not 
contemplated  that  the  Federal  government,  either 
by  legislative  or  by  judicial  procedure,  would  have 
the  right  to  interfere  with  matters  affecting  pecu- 
liarly the  people  of  any  state.  The  South,  there- 
fore, has  from  the  beginning  consistently  faced  the 
issue  and  consistently  fought  centralization  and  im- 
perialism. Its  contribution,  therefore,  has  been  a 
great  one,  and  its  attitude  towards  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment before  1860  should  be  recognized  as  of 
supreme  importance  to  the  country.  Our  Northern 
friends  should,  therefore,  be  magnanimous  and 
acknowledge  that  the  South  in  the  period  of  Seces- 
sion was  fighting  the  battle  of  state  governments, 
just  as  our  English  friends  acknowledge  that  in  17.76 
we  were  fighting  for  British  rights.  Some  Northern 
historians  have  already  been  generous  enough  to 
concede  this  point,  among  them  Professor  Burgess, 
of  Columbia  University,  who,  while  he  insistently 
claims  that  secession  was  entirely  wrong,  likewise 
acknowledges  that  Eeconstruction  was  highhanded 
and  ignored  the  rights  of  the  states.  The  North  is 
beginning  to  recognize  this  fact  with  reference  to 
Eeconstruction  and  many  of  its  leaders  are  ready  to 
join  with  the  South  to  see  that  there  is  no  further 
repetition  of  the  violation  of  the  rights  of  individual 
states. 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  XLV 

The  War  and  Reconstruction. 

The  war  was  a  break  in  the  progress  of  the  United 
States.  It  was  a  terrible  financial  and  economic 
blow  to  the  South.  No  people  fought  more  gallantly, 
no  people  fought  more  determinedly,  no  people  ever 
made  in  war  greater  sacrifices.  They  were  willing 
to  surrender  all  for  what  they  believed  was  right. 
Dr.  Thomas  Nelson  Page  has  well  said: 

"  A  proof  of  the  deep  sincerity  of  their  principles  is  the  unanimity  with 
which  the  South  accepted  the  issue.  From  the  moment  that  war  was 
declared,  the  whole  people  were  in  arms.  It  was  not  merely  the  seces- 
sionist who  enlisted,  but  the  stanch  Union  man;  not  simply  the  slave- 
holder, but  the  mountaineer;  the  poor  white  fought  as  valorously  as  the 
great  landowner;  the  women  fought  as  well  as  the  men;  for  whilst  the 
men  were  in  the  field  the  women  and  children  at  home  waited  and 
starved  without  a  murmur  and  without  a  doubt." 

In  1860  the  South  had  a  white  population  of  less 
than  9,000,000.  From  1861  to  1865  she  put  into  the 
field  about  600,000  soldiers,  an  unusually  large  pro- 
portion of  the  men  to  render  military  service.  In 
1860  the  value  of  her  taxable  property  was  more  than 
six  and  one-half  billions  of  dollars,  which  was  about 
42  per  cent,  of  the  entire  value  of  taxable  property 
in  the  United  States.  Since  the  white  population 
of  the  South  was  only  about  26  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
white  population  of  the  country,  her  per  capita  own- 
ership of  property  on  this  basis  exceeded  that  of 
the  rest  of  the  country.  By  the  War  of  Secession 
she  lost  slaves  and  property  of  taxable  value  of 
about  two  and  one-half  billions  of  dollars.  The 
census  of  1870  shows  a  valuation  of  taxable  property 
in  the  South  of  four  and  one-half  billions,  about  19 
per  cent,  of  the  total  taxable  property  of  the  country. 
The  per  capita  average  of  the  South  was  far  below 
the  average  of  the  country  at  large. 

The  year  1870  found  the  South  in  the  throes  of 
Reconstruction.  Those  who  had  been  leaders  in  the 
South,  and  the  sons  and  descendants  of  these  leaders, 


XLVI  INTBODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

scarcely  had  time  to  gain  a  livelihood.  Their  chief 
activity  lay  in  planning  to  save  the  Southern  states 
from  negro  and  "carpet-bag"  domination.  The  Re- 
construction period  was  one  of  humiliation  and  self- 
control  on  the  part  of  the  whites.  The  Northern 
people  have  never  been  able  fully  to  understand  the 
Southern  opposition  to  the  government  of  Recon- 
struction days.  They  really  seemed  to  believe  that 
the  chief  desire  was  to  keep  the  negro  from  voting. 
Had  the  negroes  been  an  inoffensive  minority,  dis- 
turbances would  have  been  less.  But  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  negroes  (many  whites  having  been  dis- 
franchised) were,  with  a  few  carpet-baggers,  giving 
bad  government  and  increasing  the  debts  of  already 
bankrupt  states,  for  the  sake  of  the  states  them- 
selves it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  there  should 
be  an  end  put  to  this  rule.  To  be  sure  beyond  all 
this  there  was  an  absolute  barrier,  a  barrier  which 
prevents  two  races  ruling  in  the  same  country;  for 
one  or  the  other  must  be  supreme.  It  was  but  natural 
that  the  whites  should  rule  and  not  the  blacks,  for 
were  the  negroes  to  migrate  to  the  North,  the  whites 
there  would  not  yield  to  them  the  government  with- 
out a  struggle.  When  we  consider  that  the  legislature 
of  South  Carolina  contained  a  majority  of  negroes, 
and  its  debt  was  increased  in  four  years  from  $5,407,- 
306  to  $18,515,033,  when  we  recall  that  the  situation 
was  just  as  bad  in  Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  it  is 
obvious  that  such  bad  government  had  to  end. 

Race  antipathy  only  intensified  such  a  situation. 
This  the  people  of  the  North  are  beginning  to  realize 
as  the  foreign  element  in  this  country  increases.  In 
an  economic  sense  the  Pacific  coast  now  appreciates 
the  meaning  of  a  race  problem  on  account  of  the 
number  of  Mongolians  who  have  come  there.  The 
Mongolian  and  negro  races,  therefore,  are  two  prob- 
lems with  which  the  United  States  has  to  reckon. 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  XLVII 

The  whites  regained  control  of  the  state  govern- 
ments of  the  South  some  thirty  years  ago,  and  since 
then  have  been  ruling  themselves.  They  have  won- 
dered, though,  how  the  political  rights  of  the  negro 
race  could  in  the  face  of  the  Thirteenth,  Fourteenth 
and  Fifteenth  amendments  be  curtailed.  Finally  by 
means  of  an  educational  test  to  determine  who  should 
exercise  the  right  of  suffrage,  the  state  of  Mississippi 
eliminated  most  of  its  illiterate  voters,  chiefly  ne- 
groes. Since  then  all  of  the  states  of  the  South  have 
modified  their  constitutions  along  the  same  lines.  In 
addition  to  an  educational  qualification  there  has 
been  introduced  into  many  of  these  constitutions  a 
special  clause  admitting  to  the  suffrage,  without 
reference  to  educational  qualifications,  war  veterans 
whether  they  fought  for  the  North  or  for  the  South, 
and  sons  of  these  veterans ;  in  some  cases  grandsons 
are  admitted,  and  for  none  of  these  is  the  educational 
test  required.  The  suffrage  provisions  have  the 
tendency  to  reduce  greatly  the  vote  of  the  colored 
people  in  proportion  to  the  vote  of  the  whites,  but 
the  requirements  in  several  of  the  states  of  the  pre- 
payment of  poll  tax  for  several  years  previous  to 
the  election  have  disfranchised  a  number  of  excellent 
citizens,  making  in  some  ways  the  new  constitutions 
in  the  South  unsatisfactory.  But  the  new  regime 
of  a  limited  suffrage,  though  some  whites  lose  their 
votes,  is  better  than  the  old  regime  with  many  il- 
literate voters,  much  bribery  and  corruption.  The 
new  Southern  constitutions  have  greatly  purified 
Southern  elections,  but  counting  the  disfranchised 
whites  as  well  as  the  blacks,  the  number  of  voters 
has  been  cut  down  nearly  one-half  in  many  states. 

In  studying  the  race  problem  in  this  country,  it 
is  to  be  remembered  that  the  North  has  never  done 
anything  towards  the  solving  of  it.  The  Republican 
party  came  with  Reconstruction,  the  enfranchising 


XLVIII  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

of  all  the  negroes,  and  the  disfranchising  of  many 
of  the  whites,  thus  degrading  the  white  people  of  the 
South,  people  of  their  own  Anglo-Saxon  stock,  a  few 
Northern  adventurers  hoping  to  ride  into  power  on 
negro  suffrage.  The  idea  as  expressed  by  Thaddeus 
Stevens  was  to  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  Re- 
publican party.  The  negro  was  encouraged  to  be  in- 
solent and  "uppish,"  and  as  a  result  became  indolent 
and  useless  in  many  cases.  The  Southern  people 
had,  after  getting  rid  of  the  Northern  incomers,  to 
remodel  society  so  as  to  make  the  negroes  useful. 
This  they  have  done,  by  maintaining  a  school  system 
for  the  negroes  as  well  as  for  the  whites.  At  the 
same  time  the  best  thought  of  the  Southern  whites 
is  devoted  to  a  consideration  of  the  problem  how 
to  improve  the  negro  race  and  make  it  more  useful 
to  society. 

The   New  South. 

Since  the  War  of  Secession,  the  South  has  not 
entered  prominently  into  politics.  It  has  consist- 
ently fought  for  state  rights  and  will  continue  to 
fight  for  them.  It  has  consistently  maintained  that 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  shall  not 
construe  the  constitution  loosely  but  strictly,  and 
in  this  one  particular  it  is  of  great  service  to  the 
Union.  But  the  main  contributions  of  the  new 
South  are  industrial  in  their  nature. 

The  population  of  the  South  since  the  war  has 
remained  homogeneous.  The  native  population  has 
added,  within  the  period  between  1880  and  1900, 
seven  millions  to  their  numbers.  The  foreign-born 
population  has  added  only  97,000.  In  1900  the  native 
inhabitants  formed  97.7  per  cent,  of  the  Southern 
communities  and  the  foreign-born  only  2.3  per  cent., 
while  in  1900  in  the  North  Atlantic  states  the  per 
cent,  of  foreign-born  was  22.6.  The  foreign-born 
population  in  the  South  to-day  is  practically  smaller 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  XLIX 

than  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  The  South  is  anxious 
for  foreign  population  as  seen  by  the  fact  that  the 
agricultural  departments  of  all  the  states  of  the 
South  are  constantly  advertising  for  foreign  im- 
migrants, and  North  and  South  Carolina  and  Vir- 
ginia within  the  last  few  years  have  sent  represen- 
tatives to  Europe  searching  for  immigrants.  The 
great  number  of  negroes  in  the  South,  however,  has 
prevented  the  incoming  of  foreigners.  The  lack  of 
village  communities  in  many  rural  districts  is  an- 
other hindrance.  It  is  only  within  the  last  few  years 
that  foreign  immigrants  are  being  successfully  in- 
troduced by  settling  them  in  communities  by  them- 
selves and  placing  them,  as  it  were,  in  a  little  village 
where  they  have  their  own  school  and  their  own 
church.  A  hopeful  sign  for  the  industrial  develop- 
ment of  the  South  also  is  the  fact  that  the  white 
population  is  increasing  at  a  greater  ratio  than  the 
colored.  A  careful  study  of  the  movements  of  popu-r 
lation  into  other  states  shows  that  less  whites  are 
migrating  from  the  South.  The  negro  is  not  thriv- 
ing so  well  physically  as  he  did  in  the  days  of  slavery, 
and  had  the  abolition  of  slavery  been  delayed  many 
generations,  the  Southern  states  would  in  reality 
have  had  an  overwhelming  majority.  The  abolition 
of  slavery  came  at  the  right  time — the  curse  of  it  was 
Reconstruction.  Mr.  Bruce  thinks  that  by  the  con- 
tinuation of  slavery  for  thirty  years  longer  "the 
numerical  disproportion  between  the  slaves  and 
slaveholders  would  have  been  as  great  as  it  was  in 
the  English  West  Indies  when  emancipation  was  pro- 
claimed in  those  islands." 

With  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  trend  of  South- 
ern population  has  been  from  country  to  town. 
Farming  lands  are  therefore  cheaper  in  the  South 
than  anywhere  in  the  West,  and  necessarily  new  agri- 
cultural conditions  must  come;  in  fact,  they  are  al- 


L  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

ready  at  hand.  The  census  of  1900  shows  that  17,- 
000,000  Southern  people  lived  in  the  country  but 
that  the  towns  are  rapidly  growing;  for  example, 
in  Alabama,  Georgia,  North  Carolina  and  South 
Carolina,  the  growth  in  towns  averaged  more  than 
75  per  cent,  from  1890  to  1900.  This  movement  tends 
to  increase  factories  of  all  kinds.  At  the  same  time, 
the  large  plantations  are  being  divided ;  for  example, 
the  average  number  of  acres  in  a  farm  in  North  Caro- 
lina in  1860  was  316;  in  1900,  101  acres.  Like 
conditions  prevail  in  all  Southern  states.  Generally 
speaking,  about  one-fifth  of  the  farms  of  the  South 
are  owned  by  negroes,  but  the  proportion  of  acreage 
is  probably  not  more  than  one-twentieth  if  we  may 
judge  by  the  fact  that  in  1900  in  Virginia  out  of  a 
total  of  19,907,883  the  negroes  owned  990,790  acres. 
Small  farms  with  an  intensive  system  of  cultivation 
now  prevail  in  the  South  and  within  twenty  years 
the  agricultural  products  have  increased  from  $600,- 
000,000  to  $1,200,000,000  annually. 

In  1900  the  number  of  bales  of  cotton  produced 
was  10,000,000;  in  1880  the  production  was  only 
6,000,000.  As  a  result  of  this  rapid  increase  hun- 
dreds of  mills  have  been  put  into  operation.  In  1880 
the  Southern  states  contained  less  than  one-fourth 
of  the  cotton  factories  of  the  Union;  in  1900  they 
possessed  nearly  one-half.  It  is  confidently  expected 
that  the  census  of  1910  will  show  that  the  South  has 
more  than  one-half  of  all  the  cotton  factories  of  the 
United  States.  The  amount  of  money  invested  in  this 
industry  has  increased  from  $22,000,000  in  1880  to 
$132,000,000  in  1900.  The  result  of  this  growth  has 
been  the  creation  of  a  number  of  technical  schools 
dealing  with  many  industrial  problems,  notably 
Clemson  College  in  South  Carolina.  The  cotton  facto- 
ries along  with  the  growth  of  iron,  wood  and  tobacco 
industries  have  increased  the  population  of  the  cities. 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE.  u 

The  increase  of  farm  and  factory  products  has 
necessarily  caused  an  increase  of  transportation 
facilities.  The  first  railroad  in  the  South  was  from 
Baltimore  to  Ellicot  Mills  opened  for  traffic  in  1830. 
In  1831  a  railway  was  laid  between  Richmond,  Va., 
and  coal  mines  in  Chesterfield  county.  The  first  road 
in  the  South  to  run  over  more  than  one  hundred 
miles  of  track  was  the  line  that  connected  Charleston 
with  Hamburg  in  South  Carolina.  In  1860  the  en- 
tire mileage  of  railroads  in  the  South  was  10,352; 
in  1873, 18,000;  in  1880,  21,612;  in  1901,  54,654  miles. 
Nearly  every  state  is  now  well  equipped  with  rail- 
roads, though  there  are  still  great  lumber  and  coal 
regions  in  the  mountainous  sections,  undeveloped 
and  lacking  in  railway  facilities.  "With  the  increase 
of  railroads,  there  has  come  a  wonderful  increase  in 
the  products  of  the  mines ;  the  output  of  the  South- 
ern mines  in  1882  was  $10,000,000;  in  1890,  $39,000,- 
000 ;  in  1900,  $102,000,000.  In  1880  the  entire-output 
of  lumber  in  the  Southern  states  was  $39,000,000, 
while  in  1900  the  value  was  $200,000,000,  this  great 
increase  being  due  largely  to  improved  transporta- 
tion facilities. 

The  material  wealth  of  the  South  has  increased 
along  all  lines,  and  in  1901  there  were  2,450  banks 
with  deposits  of  $638,000,000  and  a  capital  of  $191,- 
000,000  representing  an  increase  in  the  financial 
facilities  in  the  South  of  more  than  one  hundred  per 
cent,  in  ten  years.  We  should  not  fail  also  to  men- 
tion that  the  exports  from  Southern  ports  have  in- 
creased during  the  period  from  1880  to  1900  from 
$306,000,000  to  $510,000,000. 

Improved  Educational  Facilities. 

Since  the  War  of  Secession  one  of  the  greatest 
changes  which  has  taken  place  in  the  development 
of  the  country  is  in  the  increase  of  its  educational 


LII  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

facilities.  The  South  in  ante-bellum  times  had  no 
system  of  public  schools  such  as  that  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  its  first  real  public  school  system  began 
in  the  days  of  Eeconstruction,  though,  of  course, 
there  were  some  provisions  made  for  teaching  poor 
children  at  the  expense  of  the  state  even  before  the 
war.  The  wealthy  families  of  the  South,  however, 
had  private  tutors.  Sometimes  a  number  of  families 
in  the  community  employed  a  teacher  who  taught  in 
what  is  known  as  an  "old  field  school."  To  such 
schools  were  sent  a  number  of  poor  children  whose 
tuition  was  paid  out  of  state  funds.  The  sons  of  the 
rich  planters  who  were  taught  by  private  tutors  or 
at  the  old  field  school  were  sent  afterwards  to  an 
academy  or  to  some  small  college,  and  frequently  to 
a  university.  The  great  mass  of  the  Southern  people 
were  not  illiterate,  as  the  children  of  persons  of  any 
means  whatever  were  educated,  while  about  one-half 
of  the  poor  children  were  also  sent  to  school  at  the 
expense  of  the  state.  Maryland  and  North  Carolina 
had  a  public  school  system  before  1860,  and  South 
Carolina  put  one  into  operation  in  1811,  though  it 
was  not  strictly  enforced,  but  in  Charleston  it  proved 
very  successful.  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mis- 
sissippi, Kentucky  and  Tennessee  all  had  laws  before 
1860  providing  for  a  public  school  system.  We  may 
say  truthfully,  however,  that  the  best  thing  that  was 
given  the  South  by  the  Eeconstruction  constitutions 
was  the  system  of  free  public  education.  The  old 
aristocratic  class  in  the  South  naturally  opposed  the 
free  school,  but  after  a  few  years  such  schools  be- 
came more  popular  and  to-day  are  accepted  as  the 
basis  of  our  educational  life.  In  two  states,  Ken- 
tucky and  West  Virginia,  there  is  found  a  system  of 
compulsory  education. 

In  1900,  there  were  106,967  persons  engaged  in 
teaching  in  the  South  and  in  the  same  year  $26,000,- 


INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

000  were  expended  for  the  support  of  public  schools. 
Those  of  school  age  were  3,961,000,  while  the  public 
school  enrolment  was  2,211,000. 

The  number  in  private  institutions  was  about 
350,000.  There  were  in  the  South  216  institutions 
of  higher  learning  for  the  whites  with  an  annual 
income  of  about  $3,500,000.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten 
that  the  negroes  are  receiving  their  share  of  the 
educational  fund  and  much  more  than  their  entire 
taxes  for  educational  and  all  state  purposes.  This 
speaks  well  for  the  magnanimity  of  the  whites  and 
their  desire  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  negro 
race,  if  education  will  do  it. 

Conclusion. 

The  Manufacturers'  Record,  of  Baltimore,  recently 
summarized  the  condition  of  the  South  from  1880 
to  1908  as  follows:  Increase  of  population  from 
16,369,960  to  26,834,705;  increase  of  value  of  prop- 
erty from  $7,000,000,000  to  $20,000,000,000;  increase 
of  value  of  manufactures  from  $257,000,000  to  $2,- 
100,000,000;  increase  of  value  of  cotton  mills  from 
$21,000,000  to  $266,000,000;  increase  of  value  of  cot- 
ton crop  from  $312,000,000  to  $614,000,000;  increase 
of  expenditures  for  common  schools  from  $9,000,000 
to  $37,000,000. 

This  record  of  achievement  is  small  as  compared 
with  what  the  South  may  accomplish  when  its  popu- 
lation increases.  Its  population  per  square  mile  now 
is  only  about  31;  consider  that  New  England  has 
more  than  100,  and  Illinois  more  than  93  to  the 
square  mile ;  consider  also  the  undeveloped  resources 
of  the  South;  that  33 Y8  per  cent,  of  its  farming 
lands  are  unimproved  and  that  other  lands  capable 
of  being  drained  contain  an  area  nearly  one-half 
as  large  as  the  total  of  New  England ;  that  the  South 
is  the  market  garden  of  the  North  and  that  annually 


LIV  INTRODUCTORY  OUTLINE. 

it  is  shipping  to  the  great  cities  many  millions  of 
dollars  worth  of  small  fruits  and  vegetables;  that 
it  is  producing  in  commercial  quantities  more  than 
fifty  of  the  leading  minerals  and  has  a  coal  territory 
of  148,000  square  miles.  Think  of  what  the  better- 
ment of  its  transportation  facilities  will  mean,  for 
should  there  be  as  many  miles  of  railroads  in  the 
South  to  the  square  mile  as  in  the  state  of  Illinois, 
we  would  have  four  miles  for  every  one  now  in  exist- 
ence. 

What  then  constitutes  the  chief  things  for  us  to 
consider  in  the  Southern  civilization  of  to-day? 
First,  the  determination  of  the  Southern  whites  to 
rule  in  the  lands  which  they  themselves  have  de- 
veloped— white  supremacy  but  with  civil  rights  to 
all.  Secondly,  the  great  industrial  change — the  abo- 
lition of  the  large  plantation  and  the  introduction 
of  small  farms ;  greater  diversity  in  agricultural  pur- 
suits; the  development  of  all  kinds  of  manufactur- 
ing enterprises;  the  development  of  transportation 
facilities ;  the  increasing  of  the  efficiency  of  the  entire 
population  for  civic  and  industrial  duties  by  public 
education. 

The  South  is  making  marvelous  strides  and  its 
activities  are  being  directed  by  its  own  people  who 
understand  its  own  conditions.  The  South  has  ac- 
complished much  under  many  obstacles;  it  will  ac- 
complish more  since  many  of  these  obstacles  have 
been  overcome,  and  its  importance  to  the  nation 
is  being  more  fully  realized. 

J.  A.  C.  CHANDLEB. 


THE   HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA,  1584-1624. 

Early  English  Explorations. 

HEN  Columbus  sailed  westward  from 
Spain  in  1492,  had  any  writer  at- 
tempted to  picture  the  results  which 
were  to  follow  from  his  voyage,  his 
views  would  have  been  regarded  as 
the  utterances  of  an  insane  man.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
true  that  Columbus  pointed  the  way  for  the  develop- 
ment of  great  continents,  the  possibilities  of  which  it 
took  Europe  more  than  two  hundred  years  to  grasp. 
The  goal  was  India,  whose  wealth  was  being  sought, 
and  a  new  world  was  far  from  the  thoughts  of  Co- 
lumbus. The  lands  that  he  reached  he  regarded  only 
as  a  barrier  to  India,  which,  doubtless,  lay  near  by. 
Having  established  the  fact  that  a  westward  voy- 
age might  be  made  to  the  oriental  countries,  ex- 
plorers by  the  score  were  soon  traversing  the  high 
seas,  each  hoping  to  be  the  first  to  reach,  by  sea,  the 
long  coveted  goal.  Among  these  explorers  was 
Americus  Vespucius,  who,  having  sailed  far  south, 
touched  the  mainland  of  South  America.  In  the 
year  1507  he  promulgated  his  view  that  the  western 
lands  which  Columbus  and  the  other  explorers  had 
reached  were  not  portions  of  Asia  but  a  new  conti- 
nent. In  the  meantime,  some  ten  years  before, 

i 


2  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Vasco  da  Gama  had  sailed  southward  along  the  coast 
of  Africa  passing  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  stri- 
king across  the  Indian  Ocean  had  reached  India. 
Thus  an  all-water  trade  route  had  been  discovered 
to  the  east  while  the  explorers  were  still  searching 
for  the  westward  passage.  Da  Gama's  success, 
however,  did  not  deter  others  from  looking  for  the 
western  passage ;  in  fact,  it  only  stimulated  western 
voyages. 

While  Spain  and  Portugal  were  sending  out  ex- 
plorers, England  was  not  unmindful  of  her  own  de- 
velopment, and  desired  to  participate  in  whatever 
good  results  might  come  from  the  discovery  of  such 
a  passage,  and  she,  therefore,  under  the  direction 
of  her  business-like  king,  Henry  VII.,  sent  out  expe- 
ditions commanded  by  John  Cabot  and  his  son,  Se- 
bastian Cabot,  in  the  years  1497  and  1498.  These  voy- 
ages resulted  in  the  discovery  of  the  shores  of  North 
America,  extending  from  Labrador  as  far  south 
as  Florida.  Though  the  northwest  passage  was  not 
found  other  English  explorers  continued  the  search, 
among  them  Martin  Frobisher,  who  touched  the 
coast  of  Labrador  some  eighty  years  later  than  the 
days  of  Cabot.  But  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII., 
Edward  VI.  and  Mary  practically  nothing  was  done 
towards  following  up  the  explorations  which  had 
been  made  in  earlier  years.  It  remained,  therefore, 
for  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  see  the  expan- 
sion of  England  in  all  directions.  Along  with  the 
growth  of  English  towns,  English  industries  and  the 
development  of  a  splendid  literature  came  a  com- 
mercial spirit  which  looked  to  the  encompassing 
of  the  globe — a  spirit  which  has  made  England  the 
foremost  nation  of  the  Twentieth  century.  This 
spirit  grew  out  of  opposition  to  Spain,  a  desire  to 
prevent  her  from  being  the  most  powerful  nation 
of  Europe  as  the  result  of  the  riches  which  she  was 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIBGINIA.  3 

securing  from  South  America.  English  merchant- 
knights  and  sea-rovers  were  soon  found  in  all  direc- 
tions upon  the  high  seas,  among  them  being 
Hawkins,  Grenville,  Drake  and  Gilbert.  Hawkins 
and  Drake  plundered  Spanish  commerce  on  the 
oceans  and  frequently  touched  new  lands.  Drake  on 
one  voyage  went  as  far  north  along  the  Pacific 
coast  as  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  Kiver,  and 
circumnavigated  the  globe. 

As  opposition  to  Spain  increased,  a  feeling  grew 
for  the  establishment  of  an  English  colony  in  North 
America.  Among  the  first  to  undertake  it  was  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert,  who  was  undoubtedly  stimulated 
by  his  half-brother,  Ealeigh.  In  1578  Gilbert  started 
out  with  his  first  colony,  but  on  account  of  a  storm 
was  forced  to  return  to  England.  Five  years  later 
he  planted  a  colony  on  the  coast  of  Newfoundland, 
but  was  forced  to  abandon  it,  and  on  his  return  to 
England  was  lost  at  sea.  The  next  year,  1584,  Sir 
Walter  Ealeigh  secured,  in  his  own  name,  the  patent 
which  Queen  Elizabeth  had  granted  to  Gilbert  for 
the  planting  of  a  colony  in  the  new  world.  Raleigh 
had  been  Gilbert's  mentor  in  his  colonization  scheme, 
and  now  he  took  upon  himself  the  obligation,  as  he 
saw  it,  of  planting  an  English  nation  in  America  as 
a  bulwark  against  Spanish  aggression.  The  letters 
patent  granted  to  Ealeigh  gave  all  the  colonists  the 
rights  of  English  subjects,  and  allowed  Ealeigh,  his 
heirs  or  assigns,  to  provide  such  governments  for 
the  colony,  or  colonies,  as  were  in  harmony  with  the 
English  constitution. 

The  Roanoke  Colony. 

Having  secured  the  letters  patent  Ealeigh  sent 
out  two  experienced  sea-captains,  Philip  Amadas 
and  Arthur  Barlow,  who,  sailing  from  England  in 
April,  1584,  finally  reached  the  coast  of  North  Caro- 


4  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

lina  July  2  of  the  same  year.  A  few  days  later  they 
entered  Albemarle  Sound  and  landed  on  Koanoke 
Island.  A  glowing  report  they  made  of  the  new 
world  on  their  return  to  England,  telling  of  the  ex- 
cellent timber  and  fruits,  and  of  the  game  to  be 
found  in  the  new  land.  It  is  said  that  when  the 
report  was  made  to  Queen  Elizabeth  she  decided  to 
name  the  country  in  honor  of  herself,  the  Virgin 
Queen,  and  called  it  "Virginia."  Thereupon  Sir 
Walter  proceeded  to  secure  settlers  to  go  to  the  new 
land.  Some  one  hundred  men  set  sail  from  England 
in  a  fleet  of  seven  small  ships  under  the  command 
of  the  famous  fighter  and  sea-rover,  Sir  Richard 
Grenville.  The  last  of  July,  1585,  the  colony  landed 
on  Koanoke  Island  and  proceeded  to  build  a  small 
town  under  the  direction  of  Ealph  Lane,  who  had 
been  sent  by  Baleigh  as  governor  of  the  colony. 
Lane  was  a  man  of  wisdom  and  good  judgment,  and 
he  opposed  the  selection  of  Eoanoke  Island  as  the 
site  of  the  colony,  and  sent  out  two  parties,  one  by 
land  and  one  by  sea,  to  meet  on  the  Chesapeake  Bay 
for  the  selection  of  a  better  site.  With  Lane  was 
Thomas  Cavendish,  afterwards  to  become  renowned 
as  an  explorer;  John  White,  the  artist  and  after- 
wards governor  of  the  second  Boanoke  colony; 
Thomas  Hariot,  the  historian  and  one  of  the  best- 
known  mathematicians  of  England.  Under  Lane's 
direction  a  fort  was  built  and  the  lands  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Boanoke  Island  explored  as  far  south  as 
eighty  miles.  Exploring  parties  went  130  miles 
north  and  northwest. 

The  neighborhood  of  Boanoke  was  not  suitable 
for  a  small  colony  in  a  strange  land.  Indians  com- 
bined against  Lane  under  two  Indian  chiefs,  Win- 
gina  and  Wanchese.  Among  the  friendly  Indian 
chiefs  was  Granganimeo  and  Manteo.  An  attack 
was  made  by  the  Indians  on  the  fort  but  it  was  re- 


SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA.  5 

pulsed,  and  Wingina  was  shot  and  his  warriors 
scattered.  A  few  days  later,  June  11,  1586,  Sir 
Francis  Drake  arrived  at  Eoanoke  Island  with  a 
fleet  of  twenty-three  sails,  and  after  consultation 
between  him  and  Lane  it  was  decided  that  the  colony 
should  be  taken  back  to  England.  On  June  19  they 
sailed  back  to  the  mother  country.  Lane  took  back 
to  England  with  him  three  articles :  tobacco,  Indian 
corn  and  Irish  potatoes.  Ealeigh  introduced  the  use 
of  tobacco  in  England  and  also  the  cultivation  of  the 
potato.  Indian  corn  has  since  become  the  great 
product  of  America.  Ealeigh  constantly  thought  of 
the  colony  which  he  had  planted  on  the  American 
shores,  and  before  they  sailed  from  America  he  had 
sent  supplies  from  England  under  the  direction  of 
Sir  Eichard  Grenville,  but  they  reached  Eoanoke 
Island  after  the  colony  had  departed  with  Drake. 
On  returning  to  England  they  found,  much  to  their 
surprise,  that  the  colony  had  not  perished  from 
hunger  or  at  the  hands  of  the  Indians. 

Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  was  a  man  of  great  determina- 
tion, and  Lane's  return  to  England  did  not,  there- 
fore, cause  him  to  abandon  the  hope  of  establishing 
an  English  colony  in  Virginia ;  so,  in  the  year  1587, 
he  sent  out  150  colonists  under  John  White,  the 
artist,  who  was  appointed  governor,  with  twelve  as- 
sistants, who  received  from  him  a  charter  and  were 
incorporated  under  the  name  of  "Governour  and 
Assistants  of  the  Citie  of  Ealeigh  in  Virginia. ' '  Of 
the  150  settlers  seventeen  were  women  and  nine 
were  children,  and,  judging  from  their  names,  ten 
of  the  men  brought  their  wives  and  children.  In- 
structions were  given  that  the  colony  should  be 
planted  on  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  since  Grenville, 
who  the  previous  year  had  carried  over  some  sup- 
plies, had  left  some  men  at  the  fort,  they  were  in- 
structed to  go  by  Eoanoke  Island  and  get  these  men 


6  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

before  proceeding  to  Chesapeake  Bay.  On  reaching 
Eoanoke  the  commander  of  the  fleet,  Simon  Ferdi- 
nando,  refused  to  go  farther,  so  that  "White  was 
forced  to  land  and  reestablish  the  colony  of  Boanoke. 
The  men  that  Grenville  had  left  behind  had  been 
killed  by  the  Croatan  Indians  according  to  the 
stories  told  by  the  Indians  themselves,  but  the 
houses  which  Lane's  colony  had  built  remained 
intact. 

These  houses  were  soon  repaired  and  the  colony 
began  work,  but  the  fleet  under  Ferdinando  sailed 
away.  In  a  little  while  the  colonists  were  at  war 
with  the  Indians,  though  Manteo  still  remained 
friendly  and  was  baptized  into  the  Christian  faith. 
Soon  after  this  (August  18)  Virginia  Dare  was  born, 
the  first  American  child  of  English  parents.  In  a 
few  weeks  White  returned  to  England  to  get  sup- 
plies. He  was  loath  to  go  and  tried  to  persuade 
some  of  the  assistants  to  undertake  the  journey,  but, 
on  their  refusal,  he  departed  with  two  small  ships 
which  had  been  left  to  the  colony.  On  arriving  in 
England  he  found  everything  in  bustle  and  confu- 
sion on  account  of  the  reported  invasion  of  England 
by  Spain;  in  fact,  the  Invincible  Armada  was  al- 
ready sailing  towards  the  English  channel.  All 
English  ships  and  all  English  sailors  were  needed 
to  defend  England  against  the  Spanish  power,  yet 
Ealeigh  prepared,  at  White's  suggestion,  an  expe- 
dition to  go  to  the  relief  of  the  colony,  but  at  the 
last  minute  orders  were  given  that  it  should  not 
sail.  A  little  later,  however,  two  ships  were  sent 
out,  but  being  attacked  by  Spanish  vessels  were 
compelled  to  return  to  England.  Then  came  the 
terrible  struggle  with  Spain  in  which  the  Invincible 
Armada  was  defeated,  after  which  White  was  finally 
able  to  get  together  supplies,  and  in  March,  1590, 
sailed  for  Eoanoke.  In  August,  1590,  three  years 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA.  7 

after  he  had  left  the  colony,  he  reached  Eoanoke 
Island.  Everything  was  found  in  ruins ;  grass  was 
growing  in  the  doorways  and  no  sign  of  human  life 
was  to  be  seen.  On  leaving  the  island  in  1587  he 
had  instructed  the  settlers  in  the  event  of  leaving 
the  island  to  carve  on  a  tree  or  some  conspicuous 
place  the  name  of  the  place  to  which  they  had  gone, 
and  if  in  distress  a  cross  in  addition.  After  a  search 
the  word  "Croatan"  was  found  carved  on  a  tree 
without  a  cross.  Efforts  were  made  to  find  Croatan, 
but  a  storm  drove  the  vessels  from  the  sound,  and 
food  supplies  being  low,  the  ships  sailed  to  the  West 
Indies.  Unfortunately  these  ships  were  not  under 
the  direction  of  White. 

Between  1592  and  1602  no  less  than  five  different 
attempts  were  made  to  locate  this  lost  colony,  but 
as  a  matter  of  fact  no  careful  search  was  made  at 
any  distance  from  the  shore,  and  no  one  has  ever 
been  able  to  place  the  lost  colony  of  Roanoke. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh  was  very  persistent  in  his  ef- 
forts. He  had  spent  no  less  than  $1,000,000  in  at- 
tempting to  plant  a  colony  and  to  locate  the  lost  col- 
ony. Still  he  never  despaired  of  seeing  Virginia 
settled  by  the  English.  He  once  said,  "I  shall  yet 
live  to  see  it  an  English  nation,"  and  he  did,  for 
Jamestown  had  been  settled  and  was  a  thriving  col- 
ony before  he  was  led  to  the  block.  The  lost  colony 
of  Roanoke  has  remained  a  mystery  in  history,  some 
believing  that  all  the  colonists  were  killed,  others 
that  they  were  absorbed  by  the  Croatan  Indians, 
who  to-day  live  in  North  Carolina  and  claim  that  in 
their  veins  flows  the  blood  of  the  Englishmen  who 
were  members  of  White's  colony.  To-day  the  spot 
where  Raleigh's  colonies  were  planted  is  marked 
by  a  monumentwhich  bears  the  following  inscription : 

"On  this  site  in  July- August,  1585  (O.  S.),  colonists,  sent  out  from 
England  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  built  a  fort,  called  by  them  "The 
New  Fort  in  Virginia.' 


8  THE  HISTOKY  OF  VIKGINIA. 

"These  colonists  were  the  first  settlers  of  the  English  race  in  Amer- 
ica. They  returned  to  England  in  July,  1586,  with  Sir  Francis  Drake. 

"  Near  this  place  was  born,  on  the  18th  of  August,  1587,  Virginia 
Dare,  the  first  child  of  English  parents  born  in  America — daughter  of 
Ananias  Dare  and  Eleanor  White,  his  wife,  members  of  another  band 
of  colonists,  sent  out  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  1587. 

"  On  Sunday,  August  20,  1587,  Virginia  Dare  was  baptized.  Manteo, 
the  friendly  chief  of  the  Hatteras  Indians,  had  been  baptized  on  the 
Sunday  preceding.  These  baptisms  are  the  first  known  celebrations 
of  a  Christian  sacrament  in  the  territory  of  the  thirteen  original 
United  States." 

Steps  to  Permanent  Settlement. 

The  work  of  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  in  trying  to  es- 
tablish a  colony  in  Virginia  was  not  entirely  futile, 
though  for  something  over  a  decade  efforts  to  plant 
a  colony  in  Virginia  were  abandoned.  However,  it 
was  a  time  in  England  when  progress  was  every- 
where present,  in  letters,  arts,  science,  explorations 
and  commerce.  The  spirit  of  the  day  was  well  exem- 
plified in  Ealeigh  himself,  and  there  were  others 
ready  to  lead  in  the  same  movement  in  which  he  had 
figured.  His  plans  and  those  of  Gilbert  were,  how- 
ever, too  large  for  individual  effort.  The  natural  out- 
come was  the  organization  of  a  company,  or  com- 
panies, for  the  promotion  of  colonial  efforts,  the  basal 
reasons  being  commercial. 

Already  large  trading  companies  existed  in  Hol- 
land, France,  Sweden,  Denmark  and  even  in  Russia. 
In  these  countries  during  the  150  years  after  1554 
there  were  no  less  than  seventy  companies  chartered 
for  commercial  and  colonizing  purposes,  the  two 
ideas  being  closely  related  in  the  purposes  of  these 
companies.  In  the  year  1600  Queen  Elizabeth  char- 
tered the  East  Indian  Company,  which  was  given  a 
monopoly  of  the  trade  in  all  countries  lying  between 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  the  Strait  of  Magellan 
going  east.  There  were  125  stockholders,  and  the 
government  of  the  Company  was  in  the  hands  of  a 
governor,  deputy-governor  and  a  directing  board  of 


CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH 
Statue  by  Wm.  Couper  at  Jamestown. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA.  9 

twenty-four  members.  The  organization  of  this 
Company  was  taken  as  the  basis  of  the  organization 
of  the  London  Company  of  Virginia.  Almost  simul- 
taneously with  the  establishment  of  the  East  India 
Company  plans  were  on  foot  for  the  establishment 
of  a  Virginia  company.  The  Eev.  Mr.  Hakluyt  was 
urging  the  establishment  of  a  colony  in  the  West, 
and  among  the  motives  assigned  for  such  a  colony 
were:  (1)  The  discovery  of  a  western  passage  to 
India  for  commerce;  (2)  a  colony  to  which  the  un- 
employed class  of  England  could  be  transported; 
(3)  to  check  the  power  of  Spain,  and  (4)  the  Chris- 
tianizing of  the  Indians. 

These  motives  were  freely  discussed,  each  pro- 
moter stressing  that  motive  which  appealed  most 
to  him.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  two  arguments  of 
greatest  weight  were  the  ones  for  the  promotion  of 
commercial  enterprise  and  the  Christianizing  of  the 
"infidels."  Mr.  Hakluyt  had  earnest  supporters  in 
Bartholomew  Gosnold,  a  merchant  sea-captain, 
Edward  Maria  Wingfield,  a  London  merchant,  and 
Sir  Thomas  Gates  and  Sir  George  Somers,  two  dis- 
tinguished English  gentlemen.  Among  other  earn- 
est advocates  were  Raleigh  Gilbert,  a  nephew  of 
Sir  Walter  Ealeigh,  William  Parker,  a  rich  mer- 
chant of  Plymouth,  and  other  gentlemen  and  mer- 
chants of  England. 

The  London  Company  Charter. 

Their  plans  for  a  large  company  to  be  divided 
into  two  division  were  presented  to  King  James  and 
met  with  his  approval,  and  a  charter  was  granted  by 
him  on  April  10,  1606,  to  two  companies,  one  com- 
monly known  as  the  London  Company  and  the  other 
was  the  Plymouth  Company.  The  London  Company 
was  to  settle  in  southern  Virginia  and  the  Plymouth 
Company  in  northern  Virginia.  To  the  London 


10  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

company  was  granted  the  right  to  settle  anywhere 
between  latitude  34°  and  41°,  and  to  the  Plymouth 
Company  between  latitude  38°  and  45°,  it  being 
stipulated  that  the  lands  between  38°  and  41°  were 
open  to  both  companies  with  the  proviso  that  the 
company  last  planting  a  colony  should  not  come 
nearer  than  100  miles  of  any  settlement  founded  by 
the  other  company.  The  incorporators  of  the  Lon- 
don Company  were  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Sir  George 
Somers,  Eichard  Hakluyt  and  Edward  Maria  Wing- 
field.  The  incorporators  of  the  Plymouth  Company 
were  Ealeigh  Gilbert,  William  Parker,  Thomas 
Hamhan  and  George  Popham.  The  Plymouth  Com- 
pany was  the  first  to  make  an  effort  at  colonization. 
In  May,  1606,  it  sent  out  a  colony  which  settled  on 
the  Kennebec  Eiver.  The  death  of  Popham  and 
Gilbert,  both  of  whom  accompanied  the  settlement, 
caused  the  colony  to  be  abandoned,  and  no  other 
serious  attempt  was  made  by  this  Company.  It 
remained  to  the  London  Company,  therefore,  to 
make  the  first  permanent  English  settlement  in 
America.  The  charter  granted  to  the  London  Com- 
pany in  1606  provided  for  a  council  of  thirteen  resi- 
dents in  England  appointed  by  the  King  as  the 
ruling  body.  This  council  was  to  establish,  with  the 
approval  of  the  King,  the  form  of  government  which 
was  to  prevail  in  Virginia.  To  the  settlers  was 
granted  the  right  to  hold  lands  and  trial  by  jury, 
and  only  five  offenses  were  made  punishable  by 
death,  small  as  compared  with  English  punishments 
at  that  time — murder,  manslaughter,  incest,  rape 
and  adultery.  The  plea  of  the  benefit  of  clergy  was 
not  to  be  allowed  except  in  case  of  manslaughter. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  benefit  of  the  clergy 
was  allowed  in  most  of  the  American  colonies  for 
this  particular  crime  down  to  the  Eevolution,  but 
the  person  pleading  it  was  punished  with  being 


GRANTS  TO    THE 

PLYMOUTH  AND  XOXDON  COMPANIES 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA.  11 

burned  in  the  hand.  All  excesses,  drunkenness,  etc., 
were  subject  to  punishment.  It  was  provided  that 
everything  in  the  colony  should  be  held  in  common 
for  a  period  of  at  least  five  years,  there  being  a 
treasurer  or  cape-merchant  to  handle  the  goods  and 
properties  of  the  adventurers.  In  matters  of  re- 
ligion, the  Church  of  England  was  established. 

Under  this  charter  three  small  ships  were 
equipped  and  104  colonists  sent  to  Virginia  by  the 
Company.  A  council  of  seven  selected  from  these 
colonists  were  to  rule  in  Virginia,  one  of  that  num- 
ber being  designated  as  president.  In  order  to 
gratify  a  whim  of  the  King,  it  was  provided  that  it 
should  not  be  known  who  the  members  of  the  council 
would  be  until  the  colonists  had  arrived  in  Virginia, 
their  names  being  sealed  in  a  box.  The  expedition, 
composed  of  the  three  ships,  the  Susan  Constant, 
Godspeed  and  Discovery  under  the  command  of 
Capt.  Christopher  Newport,  sailed  from  England  on 
Dec.  19,  1606,  and  after  a  rough  voyage  passed  be- 
tween two  capes,  which  were  named  Charles  and 
Henry  in  honor  of  the  two  sons  of  James  I. 

Settlement  at  Jamestown. 

On  April  26,  1607,  a  landing  was  effected  at  Cape 
Henry,  a  cross  planted,  and  the  country  taken  pos- 
session of  in  the  name  of  King  James  of  England. 
After  several  days  and  several  landings,  they  passed 
up  a  broad  river  which  was  named  "James"  in 
honor  of  the  King,  and  on  May  13  anchored  off 
Jamestown  Island,  then  a  low-lying  peninsula.  Here 
the  first  settlement  was  begun.  Here  the  council, 
composed  of  Edward  Maria  Wingfield,  as  president, 
and  Kendall,  Eatcliffe,  Martin,  Gosnold,  Newport 
and  Smith,  began  their  management  of  the  first 
permanent  settlement  of  America.  Smith,  however, 
was  for  a  time  excluded  from  the  council  until  he 


12  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

could  be  tried  on  the  charge  of  mutiny  which  had 
been  made  against  him  on  the  voyage,  he  being 
brought  to  the  colony  under  arrest.  He  was  ac- 
quitted and  his  accuser  adjudged  to  pay  him  £200 
damages.  Eude  houses  were  constructed  and  re- 
ligious services  were  regularly  held  by  the  Eev.  Mr. 
Hunt,  who  accompanied  the  settlers,  under  an  old 
sail  fastened  to  some  trees.  As  soon  as  work  had 
begun  on  the  building  of  the  log  huts,  Newport  re- 
turned to  England  leaving  the  settlers  to  continue 
their  operations.  Unfortunately,  there  were  few 
carpenters,  laborers  and  servants  among  this  early 
body  of  settlers,  most  of  them  being  classified  as 
gentlemen.  More  unfortunate  still,  however,  was 
the  visitation  of  some  terrible  disease,  probably 
malarial  fever,  which  fell  upon  the  colonists,  and  in 
a  short  time  swept  away  more  than  fifty  persons, 
among  them  Bartholomew  Gosnold.  Wingfield,  on 
attempting  to  flee,  was  deposed  as  president  and 
Eatcliffe  put  in  his  place.  Eatcliffe  was  incompe- 
tent, and  the  colony  went  from  bad  to  worse.  Wing- 
field  and  Kendall  entered  into  a  plot  to  seize  the 
small  boat  which  had  been  left  to  the  colony,  but 
were  detected,  and  Kendall  was  tried  for  treason  and 
shot — the  first  reported  execution  in  America.  In 
the  meantime  the  food  supply  was  low  and  much  of 
it  had  been  injured  by  climatic  conditions.  Still  the 
settlers  made  some  efforts  at  exploration.  Hardly 
had  they  landed  at  Jamestown  before  some  went  up 
the  river  as  far  as  the  falls  at  Eichmond,  and  late 
in  the  fall  of  1607  Smith  explored  the  Chickahominy, 
was  captured,  carried  before  Opecancanough  and 
afterwards  before  Powhatan.  Upon  the  entreaties 
of  Pocahontas  he  was  finally  released  and  allowed 
to  return  to  Jamestown.  On  reaching  the  colony  in 
January  he  found  a  large  per  cent,  of  the  settlers 
dead  and  the  few  remaining  ones  greatly  in  need  of 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA.  13 

corn.  Fortunately  for  the  colony,  Newport  arrived 
with  a  second  supply  and  the  colony  was  saved.  In 
1608  Smith  explored  the  region  of  the  Chesapeake 
Bay  and  its  tributaries,  and  drew  a  map  of  this 
region  which,  considering  the  information  which  he 
had  at  hand,  was  extremely  accurate.  During  this 
summer  came  Newport  with  other  supplies  and  set- 
tlers, among  whom  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Forrest  and 
her  maid,  Anne  Burras,  who  shortly  afterwards 
was  married  to  John  Laydon,  the  first  marriage  to 
be  celebrated  in  the  colony. 

Ratcliffe  having  proved  absolutely  unworthy, 
Smith  was  finally  made  president,  and  during  the 
remaining  portion  of  the  year  1608  better  houses 
were  built  at  Jamestown  and  a  good  fort  con- 
structed. The  food  supply  was  very  limited,  but  he 
made  many  expeditions  among  the  Indians  during 
the  winter  and  secured  the  necessary  food  to  keep 
the  colony  alive.  During  this  winter  his  life  was 
threatened  by  the  Indians,  but  Pocahontas  remained 
his  faithful  friend  and  informed  him  of  their  plots. 
With  the  spring  of  1609  new  settlers  arrived,  all 
told  about  500,  and  several  new  settlements  were 
made  in  the  colony,  among  them  a  settlement  of  120 
men  in  that  portion  of  Richmond  now  called  ' '  Rock- 
etts. ' '  Difficulties  arose  there  with  the  Indians,  and 
as  Smith  was  returning  from  a  trip  to  settle  the 
differences  at  this  plantation,  known  as  Captain 
West's  plantation,  a  bag  of  gunpowder  exploded  in 
his  boat  and  he  was  severely  wounded.  This  forced 
him  to  give  up  his  residence  in  Virginia  and  he 
returned  to  London,  the  reins  of  government  being 
placed  in  the  hands  of  George  Percy. 

It  was  a  sad  day  for  Virginia  when  Smith  left 
the  colony.  Percy  proved  incompetent.  Neither  he 
nor  his  assistants  knew  how  to  deal  with  the  Indians ; 
Pocahontas  absented  herself  from  the  English;  the 


14  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

food  supplies  were  extremely  short  and  the  colony 
entered  upon  a  period  known  as  the  starvation  time. 
Throughout  the  whole  winter  of  1609-10  suffering 
was  intense ;  every  horse,  cow  and  hog  were  slaugh- 
tered and  eaten.  The  colonists  even  ate  rats,  dogs 
and  adders,  and  it  was  also  reported  that  an  Indian, 
who  had  been  killed,  was  eaten.  Other  horrible  ac- 
counts of  cannibalism  are  also  given  us. 

The  London  Company  Reorganized. 

While  matters  were  going  on  thus  in  Virginia,  the 
London  Company  was  considering  the  problem  of 
the  new  colony.  No  returns  had  been  received  from 
the  settlement  to  indicate  that  the  Company  would 
reap  any  commercial  benefit.  The  colonists  had  been 
told  to  find  precious  metals,  but  Newport  had  only 
carried  to  England  a  shipload  of  yellow  sand  and 
clay  that  contained  no  gold.  The  colony  had  been 
a  drain  upon  the  Company,  and  it  was,  therefore, 
determined  that  efforts  should  be  made  to  reorganize 
the  Company  on  a  broader  basis  so  as  to  sustain 
the  colony  and  eventually  develop  it.  Consequently  a 
new  charter,  drawn  by  no  other  than  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys,  was  granted  in  1609.  The  Company  was 
now  made  into  a  great  corporation  composed  of  659 
distinguished  nobles,  knights,  gentlemen  and  mer- 
chants of  England  and  some  fifty-six  city  companies 
of  London.  The  prerogatives  of  the  Company  were 
enlarged.  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  was  made  treasurer 
and  the  Earl  of  Southampton  and  fifty-one  others 
were  appointed  a  council  resident  in  England.  In 
this  council  were  fourteen  members  of  the  House  of 
Lords  and  thirty  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. To  this  resident  council  was  granted  the 
right  to  make  all  regulations  and  to  determine  the 
form  of  government  for  the  colony.  Thus  was  es- 
tablished the  first  great  American  trust  with  a 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIKGINIA.  15 

monopoly  of  the  trade  with  colonies  to  be  planted 
in  Virginia. 

The  boundaries  of  Virginia  were  now  to  be  200 
miles  south  and  200  miles  north  of  Old  Point  Com- 
fort, and  to  run  west  and  northwest  from  sea  to  sea. 
It  was  under  this  charter  that  Virginia  claimed  all 
of  the  Northwest  Territory  in  after  years. 

The  governing  council  of  this  corporation  at  once 
determined  to  change  the  government  in  Virginia. 
It  appointed  Thomas  "West,  Lord  Delaware,  gov- 
ernor and  captain-general  of  Virginia,  Sir  Thomas 
Gates  as  lieutenant-governor,  and  Sir  George 
Somers  as  admiral  under  the  new  charter.  A  large 
expedition  of  ten  ships  was  prepared  to  go  to  Vir- 
ginia under  the  direction  of  Newport,  Gates  and 
Somers,  Lord  Delaware  to  follow  later.  Eight  ships 
reached  Virginia  in  August  with  a  large  number  of 
settlers,  but  unfortunately  two  were  lost,  one  being 
the  Sea  Venture,  which  carried  Newport,  Gates  and 
Somers.  The  result  was  that  Smith  and  the  old 
regime  refused  to  surrender  the  government  into 
the  hands  of  any  newcomers  for  lack  of  proper  au- 
thorization. When  the  ships  sailed  away,  however, 
Smith  went  with  them,  leaving  the  old  regime  in 
existence  under  Percy.  The  Sea  Venture  was  not 
lost  but  wrecked  on  the  Bermudas,  and  finally,  after 
having  passed  the  winter  there,  two  small  boats  were 
constructed  in  which  Somers,  Gates  and  Newport 
arrived  in  Virginia.  They  found  the  starved  col- 
onists who  had  numbered  500  in  the  fall  now  re- 
duced to  sixty  with  no  provisions  of  any  kind,  so  it 
was  agreed  that  the  best  solution  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter was  the  abandonment  of  the  colony.  On  June  9 
all  sailed  away  from  Jamestown,  fortunately  not 
burning  any  of  the  buildings.  On  nearing  the  mouth 
of  the  river  they  met  a  small  boat  which  announced 
that  Lord  Delaware  had  passed  through  the  Capea. 


16  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

They  thereupon  returned  to  the  Island  the  next  day, 
having  been  away  for  just  one  night. 

Lord  Delaware's  timely  arrival  saved  the  colony. 
On  reaching  Jamestown  he  fell  upon  his  knees  and 
gave  thanks  for  the  salvation  of  the  colony.  The 
new  regime  was  now  inaugurated.  It  was  one  of 
pomp  and  display.  The  governor  marched  regu- 
larly to  church  at  stated  times  attended  by  his 
guardsmen,  forced  the  people  to  attend  services  reg- 
ularly and  put  them  to  work.  On  account  of  the 
climate  Delaware  was  forced  to  leave,  and  in  his 
stead  came  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  who  was  a  soldier  of 
distinction.  He  at  once  inaugurated  military  rule. 
Under  him  the  colony  prospered,  though  his  gov- 
ernment was  one  of  absolutism.  In  the  meantime, 
Somers  and  Gates  and  others  having  reported  the 
discovery  of  the  Bermudas,  the  charter  of  Virginia 
was  slightly  modified  in  1612,  this  being  the  third 
charter  of  the  London  Company.  The  modification 
was  made  in  order  to  include  the  Bermuda  Islands 
as  a  part  of  Virginia.  It  also  designated  that  the 
council  resident  in  London  should  meet  weekly,  and 
that  four  times  a  year  all  members  of  the  Company 
should  meet  in  a  general  court.  It  was  further  pro- 
vided that  all  laws  for  the  government  of  Virginia 
were  to  be  made  by  the  Company  or  its  authorized 
agents. 

Dale's  administration  is  also  marked  by  the  mar- 
riage of  John  Eolfe  to  the  Indian  princess,  Poca- 
hontas.  John  Eolfe  had  been  wrecked  along  with 
his  family  on  the  Bermuda  Islands  in  the  Somers 
and  Gates  expedition,  and  there  his  first  wife  had 
died.  "While  a  resident  of  Jamestown  he  had  seen 
and  become  enamored  of  Pocahontas,  who  was 
held  there  as  a  prisoner,  she  having  been  captured 
by  Captain  Argall  on  the  Potomac  Eiver.  The  mar- 
riage was  celebrated  in  the  church  at  Jamestown, 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA.  17 

and  their  honeymoon  was  spent  at  Eolfe 's  estate  on 
the  James  River  known  as  Varina.  In  1616  Dale 
returned  to  England,  and  with  him  went  Master 
John  Eolfe  and  his  wife,  who  was  graciously  re- 
ceived at  the  court  of  King  James  and  was  lionized 
by  London  society.  Mistress  Eolfe  died  in  London, 
leaving  one  son  from  whom  so  many  Virginians 
claim  descent. 

The  First  American  Legislative  Assembly. 

Dale's  successor  was  Sir  George  Yeardley,  who 
for  some  ten  years  with  intervening  periods  was 
governor  of  the  colony.  He  was  a  resident  of  Vir- 
ginia, had  a  large  plantation  at  Flower  de  Hundred, 
and  was  deeply  interested  in  the  development  of  the 
colony.  When  he  became  governor  there  were  some 
700  or  800  settlers.  Within  three  years  the  popu- 
lation was  probably  2,000,  distributed  among  some 
eleven  settlements.  This  growth  in  population  was 
due  to  many  causes:  (1)  More  interest  in  the  colony 
on  the  part  of  the  London  Company  secured  by  fre- 
quent meetings;  (2)  the  beginnings  of  the  tobacco 
trade,  the  first  tobacco  being  shipped  to  England 
by  John  Eolfe  in  1612,  and  (3)  Yeardley 's  efforts  to 
secure  married  settlers  and  the  building  of  perma- 
nent homes. 

The  constant  reports  made  from  Virginia  to  the 
London  Company  and  the  interest  which  was  se- 
cured caused  a  more  liberal  attitude  to  be  developed 
in  the  London  Company  towards  the  management 
of  the  Virginia  colony.  Moreover,  many  members 
of  the  House  of  Lords  and  especially  of  the  House 
of  Commons  were  opposed  to  the  high-handed  meas- 
ures of  King  James  in  England,  and  were  anxious 
to  establish  a  colony  where  a  liberal  government 
might  prevail.  The  outcome  was  a  struggle  in  the 
Company,  beginning  in  1618,  between  the  King's 

Vol.  1—2. 


18  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

party  and  the  liberal  faction  as  it  existed  in  Parlia- 
ment. In  other  words,  the  meetings  of  the  council 
of  the  London  Company  and  the  general  courts  be- 
came the  debating  ground  of  English  conditions  as 
well  as  Virginia  conditions,  and  many  a  parliamen- 
tary debate  was,  as  it  were,  transferred  to  the  meet- 
ings of  the  London  Company.  In  1618  very  liberal 
instructions  were  given  by  the  Company  to  Sir 
George  Yeardley  for  the  management  of  the  colony 
of  Virginia,  instructions  which  allowed  him  to  call 
a  General  Assembly.  Under  these  instructions  the 
governor  issued  a  summons  for  the  election  of  two 
delegates  from  each  of  the  eleven  plantations  of  the 
colony,  which  representatives  met  at  Jamestown  on 
July  30,  1619,  and  proceeded  to  organize  the  first 
legislative  assembly  of  America.  In  addition  to 
these  representatives,  the  Assembly  was  also  to  be 
composed  of  the  governor  and  his  council,  making  a 
unicameral  body.  The  first  Assembly  was  held  in 
the  church  at  Jamestown.  John  Pory,  secretary  of 
the  colony,  was  elected  speaker.  Every  member 
was  required  to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy  as  ad- 
ministered to  the  members  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment. The  proceedings  of  this  Assembly  in  Pory's 
autograph  were  found  in  the  British  record  office  by 
Mr.  Bancroft,  and  show  what  was  discussed  by  these 
early  lawmakers.  Among  the  important  acts  was 
one  stating  that  since  the  London  Company  insisted 
on  approving  the  laws  of  the  Virginia  Assembly, 
the  Virginia  Assembly  should  likewise  have  the 
privilege  of  approving  the  acts  of  the  London  Com- 
pany— the  early  beginnings  of  resistance  to  legisla- 
tion without  representation.  The  London  Company 
was  also  requested  to  send  over  laborers  and  work- 
men to  build  the  college  at  Henrico. 

The  first  movement  for  a  college  to  be  established 
in  Virginia  was  made  about  1616,  and  the  King  an- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA.        ,      19 

thorized  the  bishops  of  England  to  take  up  a  collec- 
tion for  it,  which  resulted  in  securing  £1,500.  The 
Company  granted  certain  lands  at  Henricopolis, 
now  Dutch  Gap,  and  in  1620  sent  over  George 
Thorpe  as  superintendent  of  the  college  property 
with  workmen  and  carpenters.  It  was  doubtless  due 
to  the  request  of  the  Virginia  Assembly,  or  House 
of  Burgesses,  as  it  is  so  commonly  called,  that 
Thorpe  was  sent.  Later  the  Rev.  Mr.  Copeland  was 
elected  rector,  but  never  reached  Virginia  because 
the  massacre  of  1622  had  destroyed  the  college  prop- 
erty. Thus  the  first  college  in  America  had  its  be- 
ginnings before  any  other  settlement  than  Virginia 
had  been  made.  The  early  Virginians,  therefore, 
took  an  interest  in  educational  matters,  even  in  the 
London  Company  period. 

Some  of  the  other  acts  of  the  first  Assembly  re- 
lated to  drinking,  and  it  was  unlawful  for  any  man 
to  get  drunk.  It  was  also  made  unlawful  for  any 
man  to  wear  fine  apparel  provided  he  did  not  pay  to 
the  support  of  the  church  according  to  the  quality 
of  the  clothes  he  wore.  Anyone  who  was  guilty  of 
swearing,  after  having  been  three  times  admonished, 
should  be  fined  five  shillings  for  every  offense,  the 
fine  to  go  to  the  church.  The  Assembly  was  in  ses- 
sion only  five  days,  but  judging  from  the  reports  of 
its  proceedings  the  men  were  conservative  and 
business-like,  and  had  little  difficulty  in  passing  such 
regulations  as  seemed  to  them  best  for  the  colony. 
The  spirit  of  independence  and  freedom  shown  by 
this  Assembly  was  indicative  of  that  spirit  which 
was  afterwards  to  produce  the  American  Revolution. 

Charter  of  London  Company  Annulled. 

For  the  next  three  years  the  colony  grew  rapidly. 
Negro  slavery  was  introduced  in  1619,  twenty  slaves 
being  purchased  from  a  Dutch  man-of-war,  eight 


20  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

of  whom  became  the  property  of  the  governor. 
Some  ninety  young  ladies  were  brought  over 
to  become  wives  of  the  settlers,  and  thus 
more  permanent  homes  were  formed.  The  to- 
bacco industry  increased,  and  in  1620  20,000 
pounds  were  shipped  to  England.  By  1622  the 
number  of  settlements  was  some  twenty-four  or 
twenty-five. 

The  Indians  saw  with  amazement  the  occupancy 
of  their  lands  by  the  whites.  At  the  time  that  the 
first  settlement  was  made  at  Jamestown,  Powhatan, 
as  he  was  called,  was  ruler  of  a  loose  confederacy 
of  small  Indian  tribes  in  eastern  Virginia.  At  first 
he  was  hostile  to  the  English,  but  though  he  was  a 
wily  diplomat  he  was  no  match  for  John  Smith,  and 
finally  yielded  to  all  the  requests  of  the  English 
without  serious  conflict.  After  the  capture  of  his 
daughter  and  her  conversion  to  Christianity  and 
marriage  to  John  Eolfe,  he  and  his  tribe  lived  in 
peace  with  the  English.  The  tie  between  the  races 
was,  however,  somewhat  broken  by  the  death  of 
Pocahontas,  and  later  entirely  severed  by  the  death 
of  Powhatan.  The  same  chieftain  who  had  first 
captured  Smith  in  1607,  Opecancanough,  now  be- 
came the  ruler  of  Powhatan 's  people,  and  urged 
them  to  prevent  a  further  growth  of  the  English 
settlements.  The  outcome  was  a  sudden  and  unex- 
pected uprising  in  the  spring  of  1622  which  re- 
sulted in  the  destruction  of  the  city  of  Henricopolis 
and  several  other  smaller  plantations,  and  the  death 
of  some  300  settlers,  among  them  Capt.  William 
Powell,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  first  legis- 
lative Assembly,  and  probably  John  Eolfe,  who  had 
married  Pocahontas.  This  was  a  severe  blow  to  the 
colony,  and  it  was  some  six  or  eight  months  before 
it  again  began  to  receive  new  settlers  and  to  take  on 
new  life. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  VIRGINIA.  21 

While  these  affairs  were  going  on  in  Virginia,  the 
situation  in  the  London  Company  in  London  was 
becoming  more  critical.  Sir  Thomas  Smythe,  in 
1619,  having  been  appointed  by  the  King  a  commis- 
sioner of  the  navy,  declined  reelection  as  treasurer 
of  the  London  Company,  and  Sir  Edwin  Sandys 
was  elected  as  his  successor.  The  following  year 
when  the  question  of  election  came  up  the  King 
sent  word  that  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  was  persona  non 
grata,  whereupon  the  liberal  faction  placed  in  nomi- 
nation the  Earl  of  Southampton,  who  was  elected. 
Southampton  was  equally  as  objectionable,  but  as 
long  as  the  London  Company  remained  in  existence 
he  was  reflected  to  his  office.  In  other  words,  the 
London  Company  was  controlled  by  the  more  lib- 
eral element  of  Parliament  which  was  opposed  to 
King  James'  notion  of  Divine  Eight  and  royal  pre- 
rogative. It  was,  therefore,  the  King's  desire  to 
annul  the  charter  of  the  London  Company  and  to 
break  up  its  meetings,  which,  to  his  mind,  were  the 
hot-bed  of  sedition.  Among  the  King's  supporters 
were  Sir  Thomas  Smythe,  Robert  Rich  (Earl  of 
Warwick),  and  many  other  prominent  English  gen- 
tlemen and  merchants.  In  other  words,  the  mer- 
chant class,  who  had  the  monopoly  of  the  trade,  were 
afraid  of  the  liberal  policies  of  the  Sandys-South- 
ampton people  who  were  led  by  Sir  Edwin  and  the 
Earl,  with  their  able  associates  George  Sandys,  the 
Ferrars,  the  Earl  of  Dorset,  William  Cavendish  and 
others.  In  1623  the  King,  disgusted  with  the  man- 
agement of  the  London  Company,  sent  a  commis- 
sion to  Virginia  to  report  on  the  state  of  the  colony. 
Its  report  was  adverse  to  the  London  Company, 
claiming  that  its  management  of  Virginia  was 
unsatisfactory.  The  Virginians  sent  a  commis- 
sioner saying  that  they  were  thoroughly  satisfied 
with  the  government  they  enjoyed.  The  London 


22  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Company  itself  prepared  an  answer  to  the  King. 
However,  James  pushed  proceedings  to  a  finish,  and 
by  quo  warranto  Chief  Justice  Ley  declared  the 
charter  of  the  London  Company  null  and  void.  Thus 
ended,  in  1624,  the  rule  of  the  London  Company  in 
Virginia. 

Fortunately  for  the  students  of  history,  the  pro- 
ceedings of  this  Company  were  preserved  by  Nicho- 
las Ferrar  and  were  finally  bought  by  William  Byrd, 
of  Virginia,  and,  passing  through  several  hands, 
reached  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  with  his  library 
were  purchased  by  the  United  States.  To-day  they 
are  preserved  in  the  Library  of  Congress. 

Virginia  now  became  a  royal  province,  but  the 
work  of  the  London  Company  could  not  be  entirely 
undone.  To  this  great  trust  or  corporation  is  due 
the  establishment  of  the  first  permanent  settlement 
in  America  at  the  expense  of  several  millions  of 
dollars  to  the  incorporators.  The  establishment  of 
a  representative  form  of  government  in  the  new 
world  is  a  heritage  which  we  have  from  the  London 
Company.  It  was  the  purpose  of  James  to  take  from 
the  colony  much  of  the  freedom  in  governmental  af- 
fairs which  it  had  enjoyed  under  the  London  Com- 
pany. Fortunately  for  Virginia,  James  died  before 
he  could  prepare  a  plan  of  government  for  the  col- 
ony, and  Charles  I.  was  persuaded  by  the  Virgin- 
ians, who  granted  him  certain  duties  on  tobacco  from 
the  colony,  to  continue  a  representative  form  of  gov- 
ernment. Thus  one  of  the  most  abiding  influences 
of  the  London  Company — popular  government — was 
preserved  in  the  American  colonies  and  eventually 
produced  our  republic. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Brown:  Genesis  of  the  United  States;  Campbell:  Hi»- 
tory  of  Virginia;  Chandler  and  Thames:  Colonial  Virginia;  Connor:  Be- 
ginnings of  English  America;  Fiske:  Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors; 
Hariot:  A  Brief  and  True  Report  of  the  New  Found  Land  of  Virginia; 
Hening:  Statutes  at  Large;  Kingsbury:  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.          23 

ef  London;  Neill:  The  Virginia  Company;  Smith,  John:  General  History 
of  Virginia;  Tyler:  Cradle  of  the  Republic,  England  in  America,  Narra- 
tives of  Early  Virginia. 

JULIAN  ALVIN  CARROLL  CHANDLER, 

Professor  of  History,  Richmond  College;  author  of  Makers  of 
Virginia  History,  etc. 


CHAPTER  II. 

VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE, 
1624-1763. 

Government  of  the  Royal  Province  of  Virginia. 

After  the  dissolution  of  the  London  Company,  af- 
fairs were  very  much  depressed  in  the  colony  on  ac- 
count of  the  uncertainty  attending  land  titles  and 
even  the  form  of  government.  King  James  declared 
that  he  did  not  intend  to  disturb  the  interest  of 
either  planter  or  adventurer,  but  as  he  subsequently 
appointed  a  commission  consisting  of  opponents  to 
the  Company  to  take  charge,  temporarily,  of  Vir- 
ginia affairs  the  people  did  not  know  exactly  what 
to  expect.  Serious  fears  were  entertained  as  to  the 
fate  of  the  representative  government,  which  they 
had  enjoyed  under  the  Company ;  for  while  the  then 
governor,  Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  and  twelve  others  in 
Virginia  as  councillors  were  authorized  to  conduct 
the  local  government,  no  summons  went  out  for  an 
assembly.  King  James,  however,  died  March  27, 
1625,  and  by  his  death  the  commission  for  Virginia 
affairs  in  England  expired. 

Charles  I.  had  all  the  arbitrary  notions  of  his 
father,  but  fortunately  he  was  under  personal  ob- 
ligations to  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and  Nicholas  Fer- 
rar,  Jr.,  and  for  their  sake  he  dismissed  the  former 


24  THE  HISTOKY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

royal  commissioners  and  intrusted  affairs  relative 
to  Virginia  to  a  committee  of  the  Privy  Council 
friendly  to  the  old  Company.  The  Virginians  sent 
George  Yeardley  to  England,  and  as  the  result  of 
his  representations  he  was  returned  as  governor; 
and  not  long  after,  on  March  26,  1628,  under  in- 
structions from  the  King,  the  regular  law-making 
body  again  assembled  at  Jamestown — an  event  sec- 
ond only  in  importance  to  the  original  meeting  in 
1619.  It  seems  that  the  division  of  the  General  As- 
sembly into  two  chambers — the  council  sitting  as 
an  upper  house  and  the  representatives  of  the  people 
sitting  as  the  lower  house  in  imitation  of  the  houses 
of  Parliament — dates  from  this  period.  Never  again 
were  the  regular  sessions  of  the  law-making  body 
interrupted,  and  the  Virginians,  practically  left  to 
themselves  by  the  King,  enjoyed  a  larger  share  of 
free  government  than  could  have  been  possible  un- 
der the  Company. 

Claiborne's   Struggle    for   Territorial   Integrity. 

The  question  of  land  titles  was  kept  in  uncertainty 
for  a  much  longer  period.  Despite  the  assurances 
of  King  James,  which  were  repeated  by  his  son, 
Charles  I.,  the  colonists  and  those  interested  in  Eng- 
land were  soon  given  to  understand  that  the  privi- 
leges of  the  planters  and  adventurers  did  not  ex- 
tend to  unoccupied  lands.  On  Oct.  30,  1629,  the 
King  granted  to  Sir  Eobert  Heath  the  province  of 
Carolina  in  the  southern  part  of  Virginia  between 
31  and  36  degrees.  And  about  the  same  time  Cot- 
tington,  the  secretary  of  state,  in  answer  to  an  ap- 
plication from  George  Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore, 
promised  him  "any  part  of  Virginia  not  already 
granted."  Soon  after  on  the  death  of  George  Cal- 
vert, a  charter  was  made  out  on  June  20,  1632,  to 
his  son,  Cecilius  Calvert,  for  that  part  of  Virginia 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  EOYAL  PROVINCE.  25 

lying  north  of  the  Potomac,  which  was  called 
Maryland. 

It  happened,  however,  that  William ,  Claiborne, 
the  secretary  of  state  of  Virginia,  under  the  author- 
ity of  the  King,  had  established  within  the  limits  of 
the  proposed  province,  in  1631,  a  trading  post  on 
Kent  Island,  which  was  recognized  by  the  Virginia 
authorities  as  a  legal  occupation.  Backed  by  the 
Virginia  authorities  and  the  members  of  the  old 
Company,  Claiborne  disputed  the  validity  of  Balti- 
more's grant,  and  when  this  was  decided  against 
him  by  the  commissioners  for  foreign  plantations, 
he  contested  the  point  as  to  Kent  Island  itself,  hold- 
ing it  to  be  expressly  excepted  by  the  terms  of  the 
charter,  which  described  the  land  given  to  Lord  Bal- 
timore as  "hitherto  unsettled  and  occupied  only  by 
barbarians  ignorant  of  God."  The  government  in 
England  vacillated  from  one  side  to  the  other,  and  as 
a  result  there  was  a  miniature  war  in  which  several 
persons  were  killed  in  Chesapeake  Bay.  Great  ex- 
citement prevailed  in  both  colonies,  and  in  Virginia 
much  indignation  was  felt  against  the  governor, 
Harvey,  who  upheld  the  cause  of  the  Marylanders, 
and  in  his  general  conduct  reflected  the  views  of  the 
court  party  in  England.  He  acted  in  important 
matters  without  the  consent  of  his  council,  which 
was  contrary  to  his  instructions ;  he  attempted  to  lay 
taxes  and  suppressed  a  petition  addressed  to  the 
King  by  the  Assembly  on  the  tobacco  contract.  Mat- 
ters came  to  a  crisis  in  April,  1635,  when  the  council 
turned  Harvey  out  of  office  and  shipped  him  back  to 
England. 

This  deposition  of  a  royal  governor  mightily  sur- 
prised King  Charles,  who  declared  it  an  act  of 
"regal  authority."  He  restored  Harvey  to  his 
government,  and  on  April  4, 1638,  the  commissioners 
for  foreign  plantations  rendered  a  report  giving 


26  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Kent  Island  and  the  right  of  trade  in  Chesapeake 
Bay  wholly  to  Lord  Baltimore,  and  leaving  all  per- 
sonal wrongs  between  the  parties  to  be  redressed 
by  the  courts. 

This  territorial  question  at  last  seemed  settled, 
but  in  the  vicissitudes  of  English  politics  King 
Charles  soon  found  it  wise  to  once  more  turn  a 
favorable  ear  to  the  friends  of  the  old  Company,  and 
on  Jan.  16,  1639,  Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  who  had  gov- 
erned in  Virginia  acceptably  once  before,  was  com- 
missioned to  succeed  Harvey.  The  agitation  for  a 
renewal  of  the  charter  was  resumed  and  George 
Sandys  was  sent  to  England  as  agent  for  the  colony 
to  present  to  the  King  the  wishes  of  the  people. 
But  soon  another  change  in  politics  ensued  by  the 
breach  between  King  and  Parliament,  and  Sandys, 
despairing  of  success  with  the  King,  appealed  to 
the  Parliament,  and  the  Virginia  patent  was  taken 
out  again  "under  the  broad  seal  of  England." 

To  offset  these  proceedings  the  King  commis- 
sioned Sir  William  Berkeley,  a  vehement  royalist, 
as  successor  to  the  popular  Wyatt,  and  he  arrived 
in  Virginia  in  January,  1642.  Under  his  influence 
the  General  Assembly  changed  views,  and  a  peti- 
tion against  the  restoration  of  the  Company  was 
presented  to  Charles  at  his  headquarters  in  York 
on  July  5,  1642.  He  returned  a  gracious  reply  that 
"he  had  not  the  least  intention  to  consent  to  the 
introduction  of  any  Company." 

The  civil  war  between  the  King  and  Parliament 
greatly  influenced  affairs  in  America.  The  inhabi- 
tants of  Kent  Island  were  Protestants  and  were 
restless  under  the  new  authority  of  Lord  Baltimore, 
who  was  a  Catholic.  As  a  consequence  civil  war 
ensued  in  Maryland  between  the  Protestant  and 
Catholic  factions.  In  Virginia  the  Indians,  encour- 
aged by  the  rumors  of  war  in  England,  attacked  the 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  27 

colonists  and  killed  over  300.  Nevertheless,  Lord 
Baltimore  in  Maryland  and  Sir  William  Berkeley 
in  Virginia  managed  to  assert  their  authority  over 
Indians  and  Parliamentarians  alike.  In  Maryland 
the  chief  agitator,  Ingle,  was  expelled,  and  in  Vir- 
ginia the  savages,  by  the  activity  of  Claiborne  and 
other  officers,  were  driven  far  away  into  the  forests. 
Old  Opechancanough,  the  Indian  chief,  was  cap- 
tured, and  peace  was  not  long  after  made  with 
Necotowance,  his  successor,  by  which  the  Indians 
agreed  to  retire  entirely  from  the  peninsula  between 
the  York  and  James  rivers,  and  from  the  south  side 
of  James  River  as  far  as  the  Black  Water. 

In  1649  Maryland  was  the  gainer  by  an  emigra- 
tion from  Virginia  of  over  1,000  Puritans,  who 
would  not  accept  the  forms  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land; but  Virginia  did  not  feel  the  drain  because 
of  the  much  larger  accession  to  her  numbers  through 
the  civil  war  in  England.  These  new  people  were 
not  like  many  of  the  old  settlers,  servants  who  went 
thither  to  make  tobacco,  but  English  yeomen,  mer- 
chants and  gentlemen,  frequently  of  great  estates 
and  influential  family  connections,  who  crossed  the 
seas  to  make  homes.  Tobacco  planting  was,  in  fact, 
no  longer  much  of  a  temptation,  as  the  price  had 
fallen  from  10  shillings  a  pound  in  1612  to  one  penny 
a  pound  in  1642. 

Commonwealth  Period  in  Virginia. 

The  execution  of  King  Charles  in  1649  caused 
much  excitement  in  Virginia,  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  immigrant  cavaliers  Sir  William  Berke- 
ley denounced  the  murder,  and  the  General  As- 
sembly declared  it  treason  either  to  defend  the  late 
proceedings  or  to  doubt  the  right  of  his  son,  Charles 
II.,  to  succeed  to  the  crown. 

This  was  bold  talk,  but  the  challenge  thus  ten- 


28  THE  HISTOKY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

dered  was  not  unnoticed  by  Parliament  very  long. 
In  October,  1651,  was  passed  the  first  of  the  naviga- 
tion acts  which  limited  the  colonial  trade  to  Eng- 
land, banishing  from  Virginia  the  Dutch  vessels 
which  hitherto  carried  abroad  most  of  the  exports. 
About  the  same  time  having  taken  measures  against 
Barbadoes,  the  council  of  state  ordered  a  squadron 
to  be  prepared  to  reduce  Virginia  and  Maryland, 
Thomas  Stegge,  Richard  Bennett  and  William  Clai- 
borne,  members  of  Berkeley's  council,  were  made 
commissioners,  and  the  result  was  that  in  March, 
1652,  when  the  fleet  appeared  before  Jamestown  the 
assembly  and  council  overwhelmed  Berkeley  to  make 
an  accommodation.  The  Virginians  recognized  the 
authority  of  the  commonwealth  of  England,  and 
promised  to  pass  no  statute  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
Parliament.  On  the  other  hand  the  commissioners 
acknowledged  the  submission  of  Virginia  "as  a  vol- 
untary act  not  forced  nor  constrained  by  a  conquest 
upon  the  country."  They  conceded  to  the  General 
Assembly  the  sole  right  to  lay  taxes,  and  promised 
to  secure  to  her  the  ancient  limits  granted  by  the 
former  royal  charter.  Bennett  was  made  governor, 
and  Claiborne  secretary  of  state,  and  Berkeley  re- 
tired to  Green  Spring,  near  Jamestown,  where  his 
home  was  the  favorite  resort  of  fugitive  cavaliers. 

The  commissioners  then  proceeded  to  St.  Mary's, 
the  capital  of  Maryland,  where  they  met  with  even 
less  resistance  than  at  Jamestown. 

During  the  next  six  years  the  Virginians  had 
pretty  much  the  control  of  their  own  affairs.  De- 
spite the  navigation  act  they  renewed  their  trade 
with  Holland  and  prospered  accordingly,  and  in 
1654  there  were  fifteen  counties  inhabited  by  about 
22,000  people.  Benjamin  Symes  founded  a  free 
school  in  1635  and  Thomas  Eaton  one  in  1659,  and 
the  General  Assembly  required  the  churchwardens 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVItfCJS.  29 

to  see  that  all  poor  children  were  taught  to  read  and 
write. 

In  this  time  there  was  but  one  serious  setback. 
Maryland  was,  until  1657,  practically  ruled  from 
Virginia  by  the  commissioners  Bennett  and  Clai- 
borne,  who  vigorously  asserted  against  Lord  Balti- 
more the  rights  of  Virginia  to  all  territory  claimed 
by  him  in  Maryland.  But  Lord  Baltimore  paid  such 
court  to  Oliver  Cromwell  and  made  to  him  such 
exaggerated  statements  of  his  devotion  to  the  com- 
monwealth that  the  Virginia  representatives,  see- 
ing that  they  could  accomplish  nothing,  hastened 
to  make  an  accommodation.  They  recognized  his 
Lordship's  authority  in  Maryland,  and  sought  only 
in  return  to  guarantee  to  the  Protestant  inhabitants 
of  Maryland  their  individual  land  titles  and  the 
maintenance  of  the  toleration  act  of  1649. 

During  the  anarchy  in  England  following  the 
resignation  of  Richard  Cromwell  from  his  office  as 
Lord  High  Protector,  the  Assembly  of  Virginia  as- 
sumed the  supreme  power,  and,  on  the  death  of  Gov. 
Samuel  Matthews,  recalled  Sir  William  Berkeley  to 
the  government  in  March,  1660.  Two  months  later 
General  Monk  proclaimed  Charles  II.  in  London, 
and  his  example  was  joyfully  followed  at  Jamestown 
by  Sir  William  Berkeley,  September  20. 

Bacon's  Rebellion. 

Claiborne's  struggle  to  preserve  the  integrity  of 
the  domain  of  Virginia  was  at  an  end,  and  a  new 
era  identified  with  the  name  of  Nathaniel  Bacon 
commenced.  The  rebellion  which  broke  out  sixteen 
years  after  the  restoration  was  mainly  produced  by 
the  long  continued  exercise  of  prerogative  conflict- 
ing with  the  rights  of  the  people.  Thus  against  the 
protest  of  the  colonists  the  navigation  act  was  re- 
enacted  by  Charles  II.  in  1663,  and  by  its  strict  en- 


30  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

forcement  caused  a  great  depression  in  the  sale  of 
tobacco.  Then  titles  to  lands  were  rendered  very 
uncertain  by  extensive  grants  to  Lord  Culpeper  and 
other  court  favorites,  and  there  was  a  heavy  burden 
of  taxation  due  to  the  extravagance  of  officials  in 
Virginia.  The  Assembly  called  in  1662,  composed 
of  the  friends  of  the  governor,  continued  for  four- 
teen years,  and  by  it  taxes  were  imposed  for  towns 
that  never  flourished,  and  for  public  utilities  that 
exceeded  the  needs  of  the  people  and  cost  three 
times  as  much  as  they  were  worth.  To  all  these 
impositions  on  the  people  by  government  were  added 
other  misfortunes — invasions  in  1667  and  1673  by 
Dutch  fleets,  which  destroyed  the  shipping  in  the 
river,  and  the  ravages  of  a  great  storm  in  the 
former  year  which  blew  down  15,000  houses  (prin- 
cipally tobacco  barns)  in  Virginia  and  Maryland. 
At  length,  in  1676,  matters  were  brought  to  a  crisis 
by  troubles  with  the  Indians,  who  committed  many 
murders  on  the  frontiers  of  the  settlements,  which 
stretched  at  that  time  to  the  falls  of  the  different 
rivers.  The  people  begged  Nathanial  Bacon,  Jr., 
of  Curls,  in  Henrico  county,  to  protect  them;  and 
he,  after  petitioning  Governor  Berkeley  in  vain  for 
a  commission,  went  out  against  the  Indians  on  his 
own  authority.  He  won  a  great  victory  over  the 
Occaneechees  on  an  island  in  the  Roanoke  River,  and 
on  his  return  home  was  elected  to  the  new  Assembly 
which  convened  at  Jamestown  June  5,  1676.  Berke- 
ley resented  Bacon's  fighting  without  his  authority 
and,  when  the  latter  came  to  the  Assembly,  he  had 
him  arrested  for  high  treason;  but  as  Bacon's 
friends  were  very  numerous,  Berkeley  soon  let  him 
go  and  restored  him  to  his  seat  in  the  council. 

The  conciliation  was  not  cordial,  and  after  a  few 
days  Bacon,  fearing  that  his  life  was  in  danger, 
secretly  left  Jamestown  and  hurried  home  to  Hen- 


GOV.  BERKELEY  AND  BACON  THE  "REBEL.' 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  31 

rico.  Here  his  neighbors  thronged  around  him  and 
begged  him  to  lead  them  down  to  Jamestown.  Bacon 
consented,  and  on  June  23  he  was  again  at  the 
island,  this  time  with  500  men  at  his  back.  Yielding 
to  force,  the  governor  gave  him  a  commission  and 
the  legislature  passed  some  very  wholesome  laws, 
correcting  many  long-standing  abuses,  and  among 
them  was  one  making  the  bounds  of  "James  City" 
include  the  whole  island  as  far  as  Sandy  Bay,  and 
giving  the  people  within  those  limits  the  right  for 
the  first  time  of  making  their  own  local  ordinances. 

Bacon  returned  to  Henrico  and  was  on  the  eve  of 
going  out  for  a  second  time  against  the  Indians, 
when  news  arrived  that  Berkeley  was  over  in 
Gloucester  county,  endeavoring  to  raise  forces  to 
surprise  and  capture  him.  This  caused  him  to  give 
up  his  expeditions  and  to  direct  his  march  to  Glou- 
cester, where,  having  arrived,  he  found  that  the 
governor  had  fled  to  Accomac.  Bacon  thus  left  su- 
preme, summoned  the  leading  men  of  the  colony  to 
Middleton  Plantation,  and  there  on  August  1  made 
them  swear  to  stand  by  him  even  against  soldiers 
sent  from  England,  saying  "500  Virginians  might 
beat  2,000  redcoats."  After  this  his  next  move  was 
to  lead  his  troops  against  the  Pamunkeys,  whom  he 
discovered  and  defeated  in  the  recesses  of  the 
Dragon  Swamp,  somewhere  in  King  and  Queen 
county.  But  his  troubles  did  not  end,  and  when  he 
returned  to  the  settlement  he  found  the  governor 
once  more  established  at  Jamestown. 

Bacon  made  straight  for  his  antagonist,  and  hav- 
ing arrived  on  September  13  in  "Paspahegh  Old 
Fields"  across  from  the  island  found  that  Berkeley 
had  fortified  the  isthmus  on  the  island  side.  He 
caused  his  men  to  throw  up  some  earthworks,  and 
in  an  engagement  on  the  neck  soon  after  killed  some 
of  Berkeley's  soldiers,  which  so  disheartened  the 


32  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

rest  that  they  took  ship  and  abandoned  Jamestown. 
Bacon,  thereupon,  entered  the  town  and,  supposing 
that  Berkeley  would  soon  return,  gave  orders  for  its 
destruction,  setting  the  example  by  applying  a  torch 
to  the  church,  while  Lawrence  and  Drummond,  his 
two  most  important  supporters,  fired  their  own  houses. 
In  the  general  conflagration  the  state  house  and 
church  perished  with  the  other  buildings,  but  Drum- 
mond did  a  good  deed  in  saving  the  public  records. 

Berkeley,  driven  from  Jamestown,  made  the  house 
of  Col.  John  Custis  in  Northampton  county  his 
headquarters,  while  Bacon,  after  pillaging  Green 
Spring,  marched  to  Gloucester  and  encamped  at 
Major  Pate's  house,  near  Poropotank  Creek,  where 
he  was  taken  sick,  and  died  Oct.  26,  1676.  The  re- 
bellion being  without  a  real  leader  soon  collapsed. 
It  continued,  however,  for  a  few  months  longer  un- 
der Ingram  and  Walklate,  but  they  soon  made  haste 
to  ensure  their  own  safety  by  surrendering  West 
Point  in  January,  1677.  Lawrence,  who  was  at  the 
"Brick  House"  opposite,  was  informed  of  the 
treachery,  fled  to  the  forest  and  was  never  heard  of 
again,  but  Drummond  was  taken  and  presented  to 
Berkeley  at  King's  Creek,  Jan.  19,  1677,  the  day 
he  first  set  foot  on  the  western  shore  after  the  flight 
from  Jamestown  in  September  previous. 

Berkeley  hanged  Drummond  and  about  forty 
other  of  the  insurgents,  and  would  have  hanged 
more  had  his  hand  not  been  stayed  by  the  royal 
commissioners  sent  over  by  the  King  to  enquire  into 
and  report  upon  the  disturbances.  They  brought  a 
summons  from  the  King  for  his  return,  and  there 
was  great  rejoicing  among  the  people  when  he 
finally  departed,  May  5, 1677,  for  England,  where  he 
died  soon  after  his  arrival. 

Sir  Herbert  Jefferys,  one  of  the  commissioners, 
succeeded  Berkeley  as  lieutenant-governor,  but  the 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  33 

spirit  of  the  late  troubles  dominated  politics  during 
his  administration  and  for  several  years  later.  The 
excesses  of  Berkeley  and  his  adherents  turned  the 
sympathies  of  Jefferys  and  the  other  commissioners 
against  them,  and  for  the  next  twelve  years  "the 
Green  Spring"  faction,  as  the  friends  of  Berkeley 
were  called,  were  found  in  opposition  to  the 
government. 

Despite  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  the  work 
of  Bacon  was  not  in  vain;  for,  as  a  consequence  of 
his  stout  measures,  the  colonists  got  rid  of  Berkeley 
and  the  rule  of  the  aristocracy,  and  obtained  through 
the  commissioners  an  opportunity  to  state  their 
grievances,  and  many  of  the  abuses  were  remedied 
by  the  express  command  of  the  King.  Thus  Lord 
Culpeper  surrendered  his  more  extensive  grant  of 
the  whole  of  Virginia  and  retained  only  his  title  to 
the  Northern  Neck,  and  no  similar  grants  were  ever 
again  made  by  the  Kings  of  England.  Moreover, 
the  punishment  inflicted  by  Bacon  upon  the  Indians 
removed  any  trouble  from  that  source  for  many 
years.  Finally,  as  we  have  seen,  the  political  tables 
were  reversed  and  the  friends  of  Berkeley  learned 
to  have  more  sympathy  with  the  rights  of  man. 
Under  the  form  of  the  government  Robert  Beverley 
and  Philip  Ludwell,  who  had  upheld  Berkeley  in  his 
contest  with  Bacon,  became  the  representative  of  the 
dearest  rights  of  the  people  which  they  had  at  one 
time  despised.  As  a  punishment  for  their  resistance 
to  the  attempts  of  governors  Jefferys,  Culpeper  and 
Howard  to  tamper  with  the  journals  of  the  house, 
to  suppress  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  to  assume  the 
right  to  lay  taxes,  and  to  exercise  the  right  of  a 
double  negative  on  the  acts  of  the  Assembly,  Bever- 
ley and  Ludwell  were  deprived  of  their  respective 
offices  as  clerk  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  and  mem- 
ber of  the  council.  These  jealousies  inherited  from 

Yd  1—8. 


34  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Bacon's  rebellion  entered  into  the  restlessness  of  the 
people  in  1682,  when  the  low  price  of  tobacco  seemed 
to  portend  another  rebellion. 

The  people  clamored  for  a  law  to  limit  the  amount 
of  tobacco  to  be  raised,  and  when  the  General  As- 
sembly adjourned  without  taking  any  action  the 
people  in  the  counties  of  Gloucester  and  Middlesex 
ran  from  one  plantation  to  another  and  cut  down 
the  growing  plants.  The  governor  sent  a  military 
force  against  them,  and  the  disturbances  were 
speedily  suppressed.  Several  of  the  ringleaders 
were  hanged,  and  Beverley  was  much  persecuted 
because  of  his  professed  sympathies  with  the  plant- 
cutters. 

Other  commotions  ensued  when  the  governor  and 
his  council  delayed  to  recognize  the  revolution  in 
England,  in  the  winter  of  1688-1689.  Eoman  Catho- 
lics were  believed  to  be  concerting  with  the  Indians 
to  murder  the  Protestants.  There  was  great  excite- 
ment in  the  Northern  Neck,  where  the  people  were 
boldly  harangued  by  a  preacher  named  John  Waugh. 
Finally  in  April,  1689,  fears  were  quieted  by  orders 
received  from  England  to  proclaim  the  new  sover- 
eigns, and  "with  unfeigned  joy  and  exultation" 
William  and  Mary  were  declared  sovereigns  of  Eng- 
land and  her  dominions. 

The  English  Revolution  Ushers  in  a  New  Era. 

The  accession  of  the  new  sovereigns  was  the  be- 
ginning, politically,  educationally,  religiously  and 
territorially,  of  a  new  era  in  Virginia.  The  popula- 
tion had  reached  85,000,  and  an  immense  increase 
of  negro  slaves  placed  white  people  above  depend- 
ence on  tobacco  and  rendered  them  prosperous. 
From  this  period  also  dates  the  complete  ascendency 
in  colonial  affairs  of  the  popular  House  of  Bur- 
gesses, though  after  all  but  two  of  the  attacks  made 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  35 

by  the  Stuart  Kings  upon  public  and  private  rights 
had  the  character  of  permanency.  These  exceptions 
were  the  navigation  law  and  the  suffrage  restric- 
tions, though  in  the  latter  case  the  political  rights  of 
the  people  were  not  so  greatly  affected  as  one  might 
suppose. 

Down  to  1670  everyone  above  the  condition  of  a 
servant  had  the  right  of  suffrage  for  members  of 
the  House  of  Burgesses.  In  that  year  the  suffrage 
was  limited  by  Berkeley's  long  parliament  to  house- 
holders and  freeholders.  This  law  was  repealed  by 
Bacon,  but  reestablished  under  orders  from  the 
King  by  the  Assembly  which  met  after  Bacon's 
rebellion.  And  yet  the  limitation  was  more  in  words 
than  in  reality,  for  as  the  law  did  not  define  the 
freehold  manhood  suffrage  remained  practically  the 
constitution  of  Virginia  till  1736,  when  the  first  real 
restriction  on  the  suffrage  was  made.  Nevertheless, 
even  after  that  time  the  proportion  of  voters  in 
Virginia  was  greater  than  in  Massachusetts. 

Educationally  also,  the  colony  took  a  new  turn  for 
the  better.  Free  schools  were  established  in  most 
of  the  counties,  and  in  1693  a  college  was  erected  at 
Middle  Plantation  which  took  the  names  of  the 
reigning  monarchs — "William  and  Mary.  This  insti- 
tution served  the  purpose  of  educating  most  of  the 
leading  characters  of  Virginia  during  the  War  of 
the  Revolution.  The  transfer  of  the  capital  to 
Williamsburg,  in  1699,  emphasized  the  onward 
march  of  events. 

In  a  religious  significance  there  was  also  a  great 
change  during  this  era.  Hitherto  the  uniformity  of 
worship  according  to  the  rules  of  the  English 
church  had  been  very  little  disturbed,  but  the  end  of 
the  period  witnessed  more  than  half  of  the  people 
of  Virginia  turned  dissenters. 

Greatly  affecting  all  the  tendencies  of  Virginia 


36  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

life  was  the  train  of  events  which  marked  the  long 
contest  between  England  and  France  for  dominion 
on  the  continent.  The  effect  of  this  quarrel  was  to 
bring  the  different  colonies  into  closer  affiliation 
with  one  another  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  the 
American  Eevolution.  Though  the  government  of 
Virginia  after  1697  was  directed  by  a  line  of  lieu- 
tenant-governors, while  the  chief  office  was  a  sine- 
cure for  somebody  in  England,  it  was  vigorously 
managed,  and  there  were  fewer  abler  executives  any- 
where than  Francis  Nicholson,  Alexander  Spots- 
wood,  William  Gooch  and  Robert  Dinwiddie.  They 
were  singularly  active  in  asserting  the  English 
title  to  America  and  resisting  the  French  and  In- 
dians. Nicholson,  who  was  lieutenant-governor 
from  1690-92  and  from  1697-1705,  followed  up  and 
carried  yet  further  a  suggestion  made  by  Lord  Cul- 
peper  for  a  confederation  of  the  colonies,  under  the 
supremacy  of  the  loyal  colony  of  Virginia.  He  was 
a  warm  friend  of  the  college,  promoted  the  building 
of  a  capitol  at  Williamsburg,  at  the  close  of  the  cen- 
tury had  a  census  made  of  the  inhabitants,  schools, 
churches  and  property  in  the  colony,  and  reported 
the  urgent  need  of  reform  in  the  militia  and  military 
defenses.  His  hot,  peppery  temper,  however,  got 
him  into  trouble  with  Dr.  James  Blair,  president  of 
the  college,  and  the  members  of  his  council,  and  in 
1705  he  was  recalled  to  England. 

Western  Movement  and  Settlements. 

Two  important  events  were  connected  with  the 
administration  of  Edward  Nott,  his  successor — the 
burning  of  the  college  in  October,  1705,  and  the  pas- 
sage of  an  act  shortly  after  for  the  erection  of  a 
governor's  house  or  palace.  In  1710  Alexander 
Spotswood,  one  of  the  most  active  men  of  the  age, 
became  governor.  He  bestowed  much  attention 


.VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  37 

upon  the  improvement  of  Williamsburg  and  assisted 
in  building  a  new  brick  church  in  Williamsburg  and 
in  restoring  the  college.  He  purged  the  coast  of 
pirates,  built  an  armory  in  Williamsburg,  encour- 
aged innocent  social  gatherings  and  promoted  the 
iron  industry,  but  his  largeness  of  view  was  more 
especially  seen  in  his  plan  of  preventing  the  French 
design  of  connecting  Canada  with  Louisiana  by 
wedging  the  frontiers  of  the  colony  in  between 
these  northern  and  southern  possessions  of  France. 

He  got  the  legislature  to  lay  out  two  new  counties 
—  Brunswick  and  Spotsylvania  —  to  act  as  buffers 
against  invasion,  and  established  a  fort  respectively 
in  each,  Christanna  and  Germanna.  In  1716  he  led 
from  Williamsburg  to  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah 
an  expedition  which  blended  romance  with  politics. 
He  claimed  the  country  for  King  George,  and  upon 
his  return  to  Williamsburg  he  presented  every  one 
of  his  company  with  a  golden  horseshoe  bearing  the 
inscription  Sic  Juvat  Transcendere  monies. 

Spotswood's  opinion  of  the  significance  of  his  ex- 
ploration is  exhibited  in  a  letter  to  the  Board  of 
Trade.  In  recent  years,  he  says,  the  French  have 
built  fortresses  in  such  positions  ''that  the  British 
plantations  are  in  a  manner  Surrounded  by  their 
Commerce  w'th  the  numerous  Nations  of  Indians 
seated  on  both  sides  of  the  Lakes;  they  may  not 
only  Engross  the  whole  Skin  Trade,  but  may,  when 
they  please,  Send  out  such  Bodys  of  Indians  on  the 
back  of  these  Plantations  as  may  greatly  distress 
his  Maj'ty's  Subjects  here,  And  should  they  multi- 
ply their  settlem'nts  along  these  Lakes,  so  as  to  joyn 
their  Dominions  of  Canada  to  their  new  Colony  of 
Louisiana,  they  might  even  possess  themselves  of 
any  of  these  Plantations  they  pleased.  Nature,  'tis 
true,  has  formed  a  Barrier  for  us  by  that  long  Chain 
of  Mountains  w'ch  run  from  back  of  South  Carolina 


5 
JL  JL  %/ 


38  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

as  far  as  New  York,  and  w'ch  are  only  passable  in 
some  few  places,  but  even  that  Natural  Defence  may 
prove  rather  destructive  to  us,  if  they  are  not  pos- 
sessed by  us  before  they  are  known  to  them.  To 
prevent  the  dangers  w'ch  Threaten  his  Maj'ty's 
Dominions  here  from  the  growing  power  of  these 
Neighbours,  nothing  seems  to  me  of  more  conse- 
quence than  that  now  while  the  Nations  are  at  peace, 
and  while  the  French  are  yet  uncapable  of  possess- 
ing all  that  vast  Tract  w'ch  lies  on  the  back  of  these 
Plantations,  we  should  attempt  to  make  some  Settle- 
ments on  ye  Lakes,  and  at  the  same  time  possess 
our  selves  of  those  passes  of  the  great  Mountains, 
w'ch  are  necessary  to  preserve  a  Communication 
w'th  such  Settlements." 

Unfortunately  Spotswood's  haughty  carriage  and 
impatience  of  contradiction  involved  him,  as  Nichol- 
son had  been,  in  quarrels  with  the  council  and  Dr. 
Blair,  president  of  the  college,  and  he  was  removed 
in  1722. 

However,  Spotswood's  visit  to  the  valley  of  Vir- 
ginia was  soon  to  bear  valuable  fruit.  During  the 
administration  of  Sir  William  Gooch  the  immigra- 
tion to  Virginia  was  so  great  that  population  doub- 
led, being,  in  1749,  upwards  of  292,000.  In  the  east- 
ern section  there  was  a  large  addition  of  negroes, 
which  aroused  serious  fears  and  called  forth  re- 
peated legislative  acts  to  restrict  the  importation, 
which  were  always  vetoed  by  the  home  government. 
But  the  greatest  changes  ensued  in  the  western  por- 
tion of  the  colony.  Starting  with  the  year  1726  the 
great  valley  between  the  Blue  Eidge  and  the  Alle- 
ghany  Mountains  began  to  fill  up  with  large  num- 
bers of  German  and  Scotch-Irish  settlers,  who  soon 
carried  the  English  frontier  against  the  French  line 
of  advance. 

This  made  the  contest  more  realistic  to  Virgin- 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  EOYAL  PROVINCE.  39 

ians,  for  hitherto  the  scene  of  actual  hostilities  was 
along  the  Canadian  border,  and  the  colonies  to  the 
south  of  New  York  were  not  directly  involved. 

Intercolonial  Affairs  and  Indian  Wars. 

In  1739  England  declared  war  against  Spain,  of 
whom  France  was  secretly  an  ally,  and  in  1740  Vir- 
ginia cooperated  with  the  other  colonies  and  the 
mother  country  in  sending  an  expedition  against 
Carthagena — a  city  of  Central  America.  The  Vir- 
ginia troops  were  under  the  command  of  the  late 
governor,  Alexander  Spotswood,  who  died  at  An- 
napolis just  as  they  were  ready  to  embark,  and 
thereupon  Governor  Gooch  assumed  command  of  the 
colonial  contingent.  In  the  attack  upon  Carthagena 
Gooch  was  severely  wounded,  and  the  expedition 
proved  a  failure.  Four  years  later  England  de- 
clared war  against  France,  and  the  General  Assem- 
bly appropriated  £4,000  to  the  raising  of  Virginia's 
quota  of  troops  for  an  invasion  of  Canada  by  a  joint 
British  and  colonial  army.  They  sailed  from  Hamp- 
ton in  June,  but  the  British  auxiliaries  failed  to 
appear  and  the  Virginians  returned  home  not  long 
after.  Governor  Gooch  was  again  offered  the  com- 
mand of  the  colonial  soldiers  but  declined.  Never- 
theless, in  recognition  of  his  services  at  Carthagena, 
he  was  made  a  major-general  the  next  year.  At 
length  in  1749,  after  a  long  and  popular  adminis- 
tration, he  returned  with  his  wife — Lady  Rebecca 
Stanton  Gooch — to  England,  where  he  died,  Dec.  17, 
1751. 

In  the  meantime  the  settlement  of  the  valley  had 
been  accomplished,  and  many  enterprising  spirits 
were  looking  to  the  country  beyond  the  Alleghanies. 
In  1748  some  of  the  valley  settlers  crossing  the 
Alleghanies  made  a  settlement  at  Draper 's  Meadows 
upon  Greenbrier  River.  The  next  year  500,000 


40  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

acres  of  land,  lying  west  of  the  Alleghanies  and 
south  of  the  Ohio  River,  were  granted  to  a  company 
of  planters  and  merchants  called  the  Ohio  Company 
for  the  purpose  of  settlement.  Christopher  Gist,  as 
agent  for  the  Company,  was  promptly  dispatched  to 
explore  the  country,  and  he  visited  what  are  now 
the  states  of  West  Virginia,  Kentucky  and  Ohio. 
While  he  was  absent  on  this  business  the  Company 
constructed  a  trading  house  at  Wills'  Creek,  now 
Cumberland,  Maryland,  near  the  head  of  the  Poto- 
mac, and  in  1752  they  built  another  stockade  on  the 
Monongahela. 

And  neither  were  the  French  idle  during  this  time. 
In  1749  they  sent  an  expedition  to  the  Ohio  River 
under  Celeron  de  Bienville,  who  was  charged  with 
the  double  purpose  of  taking  possession  by  planting 
leaden  plates  graven  with  the  French  claim,  and  of 
driving  out  the  English  traders  who  were  found 
already  swarming  into  the  country. 

In  the  spring  of  1753  the  French  erected  a  log 
stockade  called  Fort  Le  Boeuf,  upon  French  Creek, 
a  northern  tributary  of  the  Alleghany  River,  and 
soon  after  another  outpost  was  established  by  them 
at  the  Forks  of  the  Ohio,  120  miles  to  the  south. 
The  English  trading  post  at  Venango,  at  the  junction 
of  French  Creek  and  the  Alleghany,  was  seized  and 
occupied  by  a  small  detachment  from  Le  Boeuf. 

It  was  fortunate  that  at  this  juncture  the  govern- 
ment of  Virginia  was  in  the  hands  of  such  an  active 
man  as  Lieut.-Gov.  Robert  Dinwiddie.  He  was  a 
Scotchman  and  came  over  in  1751.  He  was  an  able 
man,  a  hard  worker,  and  by  his  alertness  in  detect- 
ing a  fraud  in  the  collection  of  the  customs  was  ap- 
pointed "surveyor-general  of  the  customs  of  the 
southern  part  of  the  continent  of  America,"  and 
afterwards  chief  magistrate  of  the  colony  of 
[Virginia. 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  41 

Dinwiddie  resented  the  intrusion  of  the  French, 
and  in  October,  1753,  sent  Maj.  George  Washington, 
adjutant-general  of  the  colonial  militia,  guided  by 
Mr.  Gist,  to  remonstrate  with  them  against  occupy- 
ing a  district  "so  notoriously  known  to  be  the  prop- 
erty of  the  crown  of  Great  Britain."  Washington, 
then  only  21  years  of  age,  was  already  a  man  of 
mark.  After  a  dreary  and  hazardous  voyage  Wash- 
ington and  his  small  party  of  attendants  arrived 
late  in  November,  first  at  Venango  and  then  at  Le 
Boeuf.  The  French  commandant  read  Dinwiddie 's 
letter,  but  returned  word  that  he  would  hold  his 
ground  till  ordered  off  by  his  superior,  Marquis  Du- 
quesne,  the  governor  of  Canada.  Washington  there- 
upon set  out  for  Williamsburg,  where  he  arrived 
Jan.  15,  1754,  after  an  absence  of  eleven  weeks  and 
a  journey  of  1,500  miles. 

Upon  receiving  Washington's  report,  Governor 
Dinwiddie  authorized  William  Trent,  of  Lexington, 
to  march  with  a  small  company  to  build  a  log  fort 
at  the  Forks  of  the  Ohio.  Another  company  was  to 
rendezvous  at  Alexandria  and  proceed  to  the  same 
point,  and  Washington  was  to  take  command  of  both 
as  major.  In  February  the  Assembly  voted  £10,000 
to  support  the  governor's  purposes,  and  he  was 
thereby  enabled  to  increase  his  force  to  a  regiment 
of  300,  making  Joshua  Fry  colonel  and  George  Wash- 
ington lieutenant-colonel.  On  April  2,  1754,  Wash- 
ington began  his  march  from  Alexandria  with  about 
fifty  men  to  help  Captain  Trent,  but  on  the  20th  news 
reached  him  that  the  fort  was  taken  by  a  force  of 
French  and  Indians  of  more  than  twenty  times  the 
number  of  the  garrison.  Trent's  command  of  thirty- 
three  men  joined  Washington  at  Wills'  Creek,  and 
the  latter,  undaunted  by  the  report  of  superior  force 
before  him,  marched  with  about  300  men  through  the 
mountain  passes  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the 


42  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIBGINIA. 

Forks  of  the  river,  where  the  French  had  converted 
Trent's  little  work  into  a  stronghold  which  they 
called  Fort  Duquesne.  Here  Washington,  at  the 
head  of  a  scouting  party,  came  in  contact  with  a 
scouting  party  of  French  commanded  by  the  Count 
de  Jumonville.  The  Virginia  commander  promptly 
attacked  and  defeated  the  French  with  the  loss  of 
their  commander  and  about  twenty  men.  This  was 
the  first  regular  battle  of  the  war,  and  greatly  in- 
censed the  French  at  Fort  Duquesne  who,  on  receipt 
of  the  news,  sent  a  large  force  to  attack  the  Virgin- 
ians. Washington,  after  proceeding  as  far  as  Gist's 
plantation,  thought  it  prudent  to  retreat,  and  at  the 
Great  Meadows  erected  a  stockade  which  he  called 
Fort  Necessity.  Here  on  July  3,  sorely  distressed 
for  provisions  and  ammunition,  he  was  closely  be- 
sieged by  the  enemy  possessed  of  double  his  numbers. 
Finding  that  he  could  not  hold  out  successfully, 
Washington  listened  to  terms  of  accommodation. 
The  fort  was  surrendered  and  he  was  allowed  to 
march  his  troops  back  to  their  homes.  The  French 
had  now  complete  possession  of  the  west,  but  the 
behavior  of  the  Virginia  troops  met  with  the  warm 
applause  of  their  countrymen,  and  Washington  was 
more  highly  thought  of  than  ever. 

Dinwiddie,  more  than  any  of  the  colonial  authori- 
ties, realized  the  gravity  of  the  situation  and  was 
not  idle  under  defeat.  He  persistently  appealed  for 
assistance  to  the  home  authorities,  who  at  last  were 
moved  to  the  importance  of  regaining  the  country 
back  from  France. 

The  war  proved  at  first  very  disastrous,  however, 
under  the  weak  administration  of  the  Duke  of  New 
Castle  in  England.  In  1755  Gen.  Edward  Braddock 
sent  with  a  strong  force  of  British  regulars  to  cap- 
ture Fort  Duquesne,  was  caught  in  an  ambush  and 
slain  with  many  of  his  men.  Indeed,  Washington 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  43 

and  his  Virginians  alone  saved  the  army  from  com- 
plete destruction.  In  the  North  the  French  under 
General  Montcalm  captured  Oswego  and  Fort 
William  Henry,  and  the  torch  of  their  Indian  allies 
enveloped  the  frontiers  with  fire.  For  four  years 
the  evil  days  followed  one  another,  and  amid  all  these 
disheartening  scenes  Washington  and  his  1,500  Vir- 
ginia riflemen  presented  the  only  bright  and  redeem- 
ing picture.  Theirs  was  the  task  of  protecting  350 
miles  of  frontier  and  they  performed  their  duty 
well.  The  arduous  work  of  supporting  and  direct- 
ing these  troops  fell  to  Gov.  Eobert  Dinwiddie,  and 
that  on  the  whole  he  met  the  varied  and  onerous 
duties  of  his  trust  with  ability  is  attested  by  the  re- 
peated commendations  which  he  received  from  the 
English  ministry,  and  the  General  Assembly  and 
people  of  Virginia.  In  1758  he  was  relieved  from  the 
post  of  governor  of  Virginia  at  his  own  request,  and 
sailed  for  England  in  January.  After  his  departure 
Hon.  John  Blair,  as  president  of  the  council,  was 
acting  governor  till  relieved  by  Francis  Fauquier, 
who  arrived  as  lieutenant-governor  on  June  17, 1758. 
Shortly  after  Fauquier 's  coming  the  war  with 
France,  under  the  guidance  of  the  great  William 
Pitt  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  England,  took  a  course 
of  uninterrupted  British  success.  In  July,  1758, 
Wolfe  captured  Louisburg,  the  famous  stronghold 
of  the  French  on  Cape  Breton  Island;  in  August 
Fort  Frontenac  fell  before  Bradstreet,  and  in  No- 
vember Gen.  John  Forbes,  assisted  by  Washington, 
captured  Fort  Duquesne.  The  next  year  Quebec,  the 
very  centre  and  heart  of  the  French  power  in  Amer- 
ica, fell  before  the  assault  of  the  intrepid  Wolfe. 
The  fall  of  Quebec  was  sealed  with  the  death  of  the 
great  general,  Montcalm,  who  had  been  the  soul  of 
the  French  resistance.  The  next  year  Montreal  sur- 
rendered, and  as  a  result  a  peace  was  made,  by  the 


44  THE  HISTOKY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

terms  of  which  all  the  possessions  of  France  on  this 
continent  passed  into  the  hands  of  England.  Then 
France,  by  defeats  in  other  quarters  of  the  globe, 
also  lost  extensive  holding  in  Asia  and  the  West 
Indies.  Great  Britain  never  appeared  half  so  im- 
perial as  at  the  conclusion  of  this  war,  but  out  of 
this  triumph  were  to  grow  domestic  difficulties  which 
avenged  France  for  her  misfortunes  and  ultimated 
in  the  independence  of  her  American  colonies. 

Social  Conditions,  1760. 

The  period  of  Fauquier's  administration  has  been 
called  the  golden  age  of  colonial  Virginia.  The  peo- 
ple in  the  old  settled  portions  were  in  possession  of 
many  of  the  comforts  that  dignified  the  life  of  the 
higher  classes  in  England.  In  contrast  to  the  log 
cabin  of  the  early  settlers  the  majority  of  the  homes 
were  comfortable  wooden  structures  of  a  story  and  a 
half,  while  the  wealthy  planters  lived  in  large  square 
brick  houses  with  handsome  paneling  and  superior 
furniture.  As  to  the  means  of  getting  about,  the 
country  was  interlaced  with  roads  which  were  good 
nine  months  of  the  year  and  very  bad  the  other  three. 
In  the  earliest  days  the  only  means  of  travel  was  by 
horse;  carts  were  introduced  about  1618.  At  the 
close  of  the  Seventeenth  century  carriages  were  in 
use,  and  at  the  time  of  which  we  speak  the  chariots 
of  Virginia  were  as  costly  as  the  best  in  England. 
It  was  generally  conceded  that  the  horses  of  Virginia 
were  the  finest  in  America. 

In  table  diet  the  mode  of  living  was  distinctively 
higher  than  in  the  northern  colonies.  There  was  a 
great  display  of  plate  and  variety  of  eatables,  and 
the  gentry  had  their  "victuals  dressed  and  served  up 
as  nicely  as  if  they  were  in  London. "  As  to  learn- 
ing, the  county  court  and  vestries  saw  to  the  educa- 
tion of  the  poor,  and  the  sons  of  the  well-to-do  had 


VIRGINIA  AS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  45 

the  benefit  of  private  teachers,  public  schools,  the 
College  of  William  and  Mary  and  the  European 
colleges.  Jefferson  wrote  to  Joseph  C.  Cabell,  in 
1820,  that  "the  mass  of  education  in  Virginia  before 
the  Revolution  placed  her  among  the  foremost  of 
her  sister  states."  Domestic  commerce  was  exten- 
sive, and  the  rivers  and  the  creeks  swarmed  with 
small  craft,  all  of  which  were  made  in  Virginia;  as 
early  as  1690  ships  of  300  tons  were  built,  and  after- 
wards trade  to  the  West  Indies  was  conducted  in 
ships  of  Virginia  make. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Andrews:  Colonial  Self  Government;  Beverley,  Rob- 
ert: History  of  Virginia  (1722);  Bruce:  Social  and  Economic  History  of 
Virginia;  Burke,  John  D.:  History  of  Virginia;  Campbell,  Charles:  His- 
tory of  the  Colony  and  Ancient  Dominion  of  Virginia;  Doyle,  J.  A. :  British 
Colonies  in  America;  Letters  of  Alexander  Spotswood  (2  vols.);  Letters  of 
Robert  Dinwiddie  (2  vols.);  Fiske,  John:  Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neigh- 
bors, Calendar  of  State  Papers;  Force:  Tracts;  Greene:  Provincial  America 
(Vol.  VI.  of  Hart's  American  Nation);  Hening:  Statutes  at  Large;  How- 
ison,  R.  R.:  History  of  Virginia;  Hartwell,  Blair  and  Chilton:  An  Account 
of  the  Present  State  of  Virginia;  Jones,  Hugh:  Present  State  of  Virginia; 
Neill:  The  Virginia  Company  (1868),  Virginia  Carolorum  (1886),  Vir- 
ginia Vetusta  (1885),  Virginia  and  Virginiola  (1878);  Stith,  William: 
History  of  Virginia  (1747);  Thwaites:  France  in  America  (Vol.  VII.  of 
Hart's  American  Nation);  Tyler:  England  in  America  (Vol.  III.  of  Hart's 
American  Nation),  Cradle  of  the  Republic,  Jamestown  and  James  River; 
Virginia  Historical  Magazine  (15  vols.);  William  and  Mary  College  Quar* 
terly  Historical  Magazine  (16  vols.);  Virginia  Historical  Register. 

LYOST  GARDINER  TYLER, 

President  William  and  Mary  College;  editor  Narratives  of 
Early  Virginia;  author  The  Cradle  of  the  Republic, 
Williamsburg,  The  Old  Colonial  Capital,  etc. 


46  THE  HJSTOBY  OF  VIRGINIA. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  VIR- 
GINIA IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

I.— The  Plantation  System. 

Throughout  the  Seventeenth  century  the  entire 
system  of  Virginia  life  rested,  not  upon  a  civil  divi- 
sion— the  township,  as  in  New  England,  but  upon  an 
economic  division — the  plantation.  A  just  concep- 
tion of  its  economic  framework,  either  in  whole  or 
part,  may  be  obtained  by  studying  the  character  of 
a  single  large  plantation  in  any  section  of  the  colony. 
The  community  was  simply  a  series  of  plantations, 
differing  one  from  another  really  only  in  size ;  in  all, 
the  same  staple  crop  was  produced,  the  same  kind  of 
labor  was  employed.  Practically,  the  cultivation  of 
tobacco  was  the  only  occupation.  There  were  no 
towns,  no  organized  manufactures,  few  trained  arti- 
zans.  A  perfect  simplicity,  an  almost  complete  mo- 
notony, was  the  universal  economic  keynote. 

Taking  the  plantation  as  the  centre  of  the  eco- 
nomic life,  it  is  easy  to  follow  the  growth  of  one  of 
these  communities  from  its  very  birth.  The  pressure 
of  the  advancing  landowners  against  the  barrier  of 
the  frontier  forest  was,  from  the  start,  like  the  pres- 
sure of  an  army  besieging  a  town ;  the  progress  was 
step  by  step,  but  ever  forward,  irresistibly  though 
slowly.  A  public  grant  of  one  little  corner  in  the 
wilderness,  at  the  outer  edge  of  the  settlements,  was 
followed  by  the  grant  of  another  corner,  close  at 
hand  but  slightly  ahead,  until  what  was  wild  land 
to-day  became  tilled  and  inhabited  land  to-morrow. 
Most  of  these  patentees  were  men  who  had  been  long 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  47 

established  in  the  colony,  and  who,  in  choosing  new 
ground,  understood  by  experience  what  were  the 
physical  conditions  desirable.  There  were  two  of 
prime  importance :  first,  the  soil  must  be  rich  in  the 
elements  suitable  for  tobacco,  the  best  indication  of 
which  would  be  a  thick  growth  of  towering  trees; 
secondly,  the  land  must  lie  upon  the  banks  of  a 
stream  navigable  either  by  ships  or  shallops,  so  as 
to  give  access  to  the  great  highway  of  the  ocean  and 
thereby  to  the  markets  of  the  world. 

Having  inspected  the  soil,  satisfied  himself  as  to 
its  quality  and  defined  its  bounds,  the  would-be 
grantee  petitioned  the  Governor  and  Council  to  is- 
sue, in  his  favor,  the  necessary  patent,  under  the 
colony's  great  seal.  These  officers,  in  consenting, 
were  presumed  to  represent  the  King,  in  whom  the 
paramount  title  to  every  acre  was  supposed  to  be  in- 
vested. This  was  the  legal  fiction  even  before  the 
Indians  had  been  driven  from  the  lands  which  they 
had  held  long  before  the  English  throne  itself  had 
come  into  existence.  The  King's  right  was  thought 
to  be  as  positive,  absolute  and  exclusive  as  if  it  had 
descended  undisputed  from  a  remote  ancestry.  But 
in  spite  of  this  view  there  was,  especially  after  the 
revocation  of  the  charter  in  1624,  a  disposition  to 
recognize  the  Indian's  real  ownership  of  the  country 
back  of  the  frontier.  This  arose  from  a  desire  to 
avoid  all  causes  of  quarrel  with  those  restless  and 
treacherous  people.  But  whether  the  paramount 
title  of  the  King  had  been  acquired  by  force  or  by 
treaty,  the  method  of  conferring  on  the  private  indi- 
vidual title  in  a  given  area  of  ground  was  substan- 
tially the  same  throughout  the  century — the  only  dif- 
ference was  that,  in  the  company's  time,  the  gov- 
ernor and  council  issuing  the  patent  had  to  transmit 
it  to  the  quarter  court  in  London  for  confirmation, 
while,  after  the  company's  overthrow,  the  patent 


48  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

was  granted  under  a  general  law  which  did  away 
with  such  unnecessary  delay. 

There  were  two  grounds  on  which  the  public  lands 
were  conveyed  to  individuals.  First,  the  perform- 
ance of  public  services  which  were  thought  to  be 
worthy  of  some  reward.  During  the  company's  ex- 
istence such  services  were  generally  performed  only 
by  officers  of  state  who  had  made  extraordinary  sac- 
rifices of  ease  and  fortune  to  increase  the  prosperity 
of  the  colony.  Latterly,  meritorious  service  usually 
consisted  of  some  form  of  self -exposure  in  defending 
the  frontiers  against  Indian  attack. 

But  by  far  the  most  important  basis  of  conferring 
title  was  the  headright.  Every  person  who  came  out 
to  the  colony  or  paid  the  expense  of  some  other  per- 
son's transportation,  whether  a  member  of  his  own 
family,  a  friend  or  a  servant,  could  claim  a  patent 
for  fifty  acres  out  of  the  public  domain.  There  was 
but  one  condition  imposed:  the  person  or  persons 
whose  importation  had  led  to  the  grant  must  remain 
in  Virginia  at  least  three  years,  unless  in  the  interval 
overtaken  by  death. 

The  headright  was  one  of  the  most  farsighted  of 
provisions.  In  that  age  there  were  no  such  facilities 
for  crossing  the  ocean  as  exist  at  the  present  day, 
when  even  the  European  peasant  can  meet  all  the 
costs  of  the  passage.  So  expensive  was  the  voyage 
then  that,  unless  the  importer  had  been  allowed  fifty 
acres  in  compensation  for  his  outlay  for  every  per- 
son, including  himself,  brought  over  by  him,  only  a 
small  number  of  the  agricultural  servants  could  have 
found  their  way  to  Virginia ;  and  without  that  class, 
the  destruction  of  the  primaeval  forest  would  have 
gone  on  very  slowly.  But  in  addition  to  this,  the 
headright  gave  the  practical  assurance  that  the  ap- 
propriation of  the  soil  would  not  outstrip  the  growth 
in  population.  If  any  one  could  have  secured  a 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  49 

patent  by  paying  down  a  sum  of  money,  vast  tracts 
of  land  would  have  been  acquired  in  the  most  favored 
regions,  to  be  held  simply  for  speculative  purposes, 
without  any  attempt  at  seating  or  tilling  them.  Es- 
pecially was  this  to  be  deprecated  in  times  when  the 
proximity  of  a  navigable  stream  to  every  estate  was 
considered  to  be  indispensable.  It  would  not  have 
been  long  before  all  the  eligible  parts  of  the  public 
domain  would  have  been  engrossed  by  the  wealthy 
colonists. 

The  expense  of  the  ocean  passage  in  the  Seven- 
teenth century  was  about  six  pounds  sterling.  Such 
was  the  amount  which  citizens  like  William  Fitzhugh 
or  William  Byrd  had  to  pay  for  every  servant  whom 
they  imported,  which  would  signify  that  each  of 
these  opulent  planters  obtained  the  fifty  acres 
granted  in  compensation,  at  the  rate  of  two  and  two- 
fifths  shillings,  or,  in  our  modern  currency,  two  dol- 
lars and  eighty-five  cents.  Very  properly,  no  limit 
was  set  to  the  number  of  acres  to  be  acquired  under 
the  operation  of  the  headright.  If  a  colonist  had  the 
means  to  bring  in  ten  thousand  immigrants,  he  was 
as  legally  entitled  to  500,000  acres  as  the  man  who 
had  brought  in  one  was  entitled  to  fifty  acres;  but, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  owing  to  the  expense  of  import- 
ing servants,  the  size  of  the  patent  rarely  ran  over 
a  few  hundred  acres.  Between  1630  and  1650,  the 
average  area  embraced  was  446  acres ;  between  1650 
and  1700,  it  was  674;  but  there  were  instances  of 
grants  for  as  much  as  10,000  acres. 

When  the  grant  had  been  made,  two  conditions 
had  to  be  observed  by  the  patentee  to  avoid  a  for- 
feiture. First,  the  plantation  had  to  be  seated.  A 
very  liberal  interpretation  of  this  requirement  was 
permitted — it  was  deemed  to  have  been  fulfilled 
should  the  patentee  have  erected  a  small  cabin  of 
the  meanest  pretensions  on  the  land ;  had  suffered  & 

Vol.  1-4. 


50  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

small  stock  of  cattle  to  range  for  twelve  months  in 
its  woods,  or  had  planted  an  acre  in  corn  or  tobacco. 
In  the  greatest  number  of  cases,  the  new  plantation 
was  promptly  occupied  as  provided  by  law,  since  the 
owner  wished  to  erect  a  home  of  his  own  at  once. 
The  second  requirement  was  the  payment  to  the 
King  of  an  annual  quit  rent  of  twelve  pence  for 
every  fifty  acres  in  the  tract.  This  rent  continued 
throughout  the  century  to  be  a  cause  of  ill-feeling  in 
the  landowners,  as  they  looked  on  it  as  a  cloud  on 
their  titles,  and  they  used  every  kind  of  device  either 
to  diminish  its  burden  or  to  evade  it  altogether. 

The  Two  Classes  of  Labor. 

When  the  patentee  had  acquired  a  complete  title, 
how  did  he  bring  his  new  lands  under  cultivation? 
There  were  two  classes  of  laborers  employed  by  the 
planters  to  this  end:  (1)  white  servants  bound  by 
indentures  for  a  term  of  years;  (2)  African 
slaves. 

During  the  whole  of  the  Seventeenth  century  the 
first  class,  by  its  superior  numbers,  was  the  most 
important  of  the  two.  When  the  Dutch  ship,  in  1619, 
disembarked  its  memorable  cargo  of  negroes,  the 
earliest  to  be  transported  to  the  colony,  the  popula- 
tion of  all  the  settlements  consisted  largely  of  these 
indentured  white  servants.  In  1625  they  numbered 
about  four  hundred  and  sixty-four,  while  the  black 
slaves  numbered  only  twenty-two.  Sixty  years 
later  the  proportion  of  slaves  had  risen — there  were 
six  thousand  white  servants  and  two  thousand  Afri- 
cans. During  the  ninth  and  tenth  decades  the  pro- 
portion of  negroes  rose  higher  still,  but  the  white 
servants  continued  to  hold  the  economic  supremacy 
as  between  the  two  classes  of  laborers. 

There  were,  throughout  the  century,  two  influences 
at  play  to  swell  the  number  of  white  servants  in  the 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  ftl 

colony — the  one  in  operation  in  England,  the  other 
in  Virginia. 

First  as  to  the  influence  in  operation  in  England. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  lower  classes  in  that  country 
at  this  time  were  compelled,  by  the  rigid  trade  laws, 
to  earn  a  livelihood  as  laborers  in  the  fields ;  but  the 
opportunities  to  do  so  fluctuated  with  the  prosperity 
or  depression  in  agriculture.  As  each  parish  was 
required  to  support  its  own  poor,  there  was  among 
some  parishes,  about  1622,  a  disposition  to  shirk  this 
charge  by  allowing  their  unemployed  to  wander  into 
other  parishes  in  search  of  work;  this  led  to  re- 
strictive regulations  by  the  parishes  suffering  most, 
and  finally  to  the  passage  of  a  statute  by  Parliament 
which  confined  the  great  body  of  the  English  labor- 
ers to  their  native  parishes,  a  measure  that  not  only 
curtailed  their  personal  liberty,  but  diminished  and 
even  destroyed  their  ability  to  improve  their  condi- 
tion. But  to  make  their  state  even  worse,  their 
wages  were  fixed  at  regular  intervals  by  the  land- 
owners. In  the  years  in  which  tho  price  of  wheat 
rose  high  above  the  average,  as  so  often  occurred, 
the  agricultural  laborer's  straits  were  deplorable  be- 
cause the  advance  in  the  cost  of  bread  was  not  or 
could  not  be  anticipated.  Confined  to  his  native 
parish  as  to  the  bounds  of  a  prison,  receiving  a  rate 
of  remuneration  which  had  been  dictated  by  his  em- 
ployer— a  rate  not  furnishing  an  easy  subsistence 
for  himself  and  his  family  even  in  seasons  of  plenty 
— compelled  to  buy  his  supplies  at  prices  set  by 
the  producers,  and  subject  to  heavy  penalties  for  the 
slightest  infractions  of  law — was  it  surprising  that 
he  looked  upon  emigration  to  Virginia  as  a  provi- 
dential opening  for  improving  his  condition  after  a 
term  of  years  had  been  served? 

Powerful  as  was  the  pressure  forcing  him  out  of 
England,  the  inducements  drawing  him  to  Virginia 


52  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

were  more  powerful  still.  The  only  thing  in  thft 
colony  that  was  said  to  be  dear  was  labor,  and  this 
continued  so  throughout  the  century.  The  great  and 
uninterrupted  demand  for  agricultural  servants  had 
its  origin  in  the  physical  peculiarities  of  the  country. 
The  very  anxiety  of  the  planters  to  acquire  title  to 
the  richest  soil,  as  assuring  the  most  profitable  crops 
of  tobacco,  increased  the  difficulties  in  opening  up 
new  land,  because  the  growth  of  timber  was  in  pro- 
portion to  the  fertility  of  the  ground.  In  removing 
the  forest — this  being  the  supreme  obstacle  to  be  sur- 
mounted— the  settler  required  the  aid  of  others  to 
carry  through  the  work  that  was  essential.  The 
person  who  had  obtained  a  patent  to  fifty  or  five  hun- 
dred acres  was,  in  a  few  years,  compelled  to  sue  ouV 
a  patent  to  an  additional  tract  in  order  to  again  ob- 
tain the  virgin  soil  necessary  for  the  production  of 
tobacco  of  the  finest  quality  in  the  largest  quantity, 
since,  in  that  age,  no  manures  were  used  in  enriching 
the  fields.  This  course  of  acquiring  new  lands  was 
prolonged  for  an  indefinite  series  of  years.  Through- 
out the  whole  period  he  needed  the  assistance  of 
laborers.  As  long  as  there  was  a  surplus  popula- 
tion there  could  be  no  difficulty  in  securing  these 
laborers.  The  facilities  for  their  transportation 
were  ample.  Not  a  year,  during  the  company's  ex- 
istence, passed  that  English  worldngmen  did  not 
pour  into  the  colony,  and  after  its  abolition  the 
stream  grew  larger  and  larger  in  its  volume. 

Proportion  of  Criminals. 

What  was  the  proportion  of  criminals  among  this 
great  class  of  agricultural  servants  f  In  those  times 
there  were  three  hundred  offenses  in  the  English 
code  punishable  with  death,  but  it  seemed  too  harsh 
even  to  the  hardened  judges  of  that  age  to  inflict  the 
extreme  penalty  for  most  of  these  offenses.  Sen' 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  53 

tence  to  transportation  was,  on  their  part,  a  com- 
promise with  the  more  humane  feelings  of  their  na- 
tures. It  is  doubtful  whether  a  single  convict  was 
imported  into  Virginia  during  the  Seventeenth  cen- 
tury whose  case,  when  tried  in  the  English  courts, 
was  not  marked  by  circumstances  in  mitigation  of  its 
heinousness.  There  are  many  proofs  that  all  at- 
tempts by  the  English  government  to  impose  on  the 
colony  utterly  abandoned  jail-birds  met  with  strong, 
and  generally  with  successful,  opposition  by  the  au- 
thorities at  Jamestown.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
servants  who  came  in  as  convicts  were  simply  men 
who  had  taken  part  in  various  rebellious  move- 
ments, a  class  of  population  which,  so  far  from  al- 
ways belonging  to  a  low  station  in  their  native  coun- 
try, frequently  represented  the  most  useful  and  re- 
spectable elements  in  the  kingdom.  It  was  no  crime 
for  Irishmen  to  defend  their  own  soil  against  the 
tyrannical  intrusion  of  Cromwell,  or  for  disaffected 
Englishmen  or  Scotchmen  to  rise  up  against  the 
harsh  and  cruel  measures  of  the  Second  Charles  or 
the  Second  James.  It  was  the  men  who  loved  their 
homes  and  were  devoted  to  their  church  who  led 
these  movements;  and  their  followers,  in  spite  of 
ignorance  and  poverty,  shared  their  courage,  their 
steadfastness  and  their  patriotism. 

The  youthfulness  of  the  great  majority  of  the 
laborers — an  additional  proof  of  the  comparative 
smallness  of  the  criminal  element  in  that  class — is 
revealed  in  a  number  of  ways :  by  the  reports  of  the 
early  censuses,  by  the  surviving  cockets  of  mer- 
chantmen, and  by  the  entries  in  the  county  records. 
It  is  highly  probable  that  the  average  age  did  not 
exceed  nineteen.  A  considerable  section  had  been 
obtained  by  felonious  means;  it  was  no  uncommon 
thing  in  those  times  to  find  men  and  women — ' '  spir- 
its," they  were  called — in  the  seaport  towns  of  Eng- 


54  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

land  who  earned  a  livelihood  by  alluring  very  young 
persons  to  their  houses  by  gifts  of  sweetmeats,  and 
having  cropped  the  victims'  hair  so  as  to  alter  their 
appearance  beyond  recognition,  disposed  of  them  to 
shipmasters  engaged  in  the  plantation  trade.  But 
there  is  reason  to  think  that  the  means  employed 
even  by  this  class  were  not  always  so  criminal;  they 
played  on  the  ignorance  of  simple-minded  adults,  the 
restlessness  of  persons  in  the  lower  walks  of  life  who 
were  anxious  for  a  change,  the  despair  of  those  who 
were  sunk  in  hopeless  poverty,  and  the  eagerness  of 
those  guilty  of  infractions  of  the  law  to  escape  from 
the  country.  There  were  also  agents  of  high  stand- 
ing in  every  great  port  who  were  prepared  to  supply 
all  the  servants  needed  by  emigrants  of  means  who 
intended  to  open  up  new  plantations.  The  most  con- 
stant patron  of  these  agents  was  the  merchant  who 
made  annual  shipments  of  various  kinds  to  Virginia, 
and  who  exported  these  servants  as  so  many  bales 
of  goods  for  exchange  for  the  principal  commodity 
of  the  country.  In  assigning  servants  to  the  plant- 
ers, he  could  only  dispose  of  their  labor  for  the  pe- 
riod covered  by  their  indentures.  In  the  absence  of 
indentures  the  length  of  the  term  was  fixed  by  the 
custom  of  the  colony — if  the  servant  was  under  nine- 
teen years  of  age,  his  term  lasted  until  he  was 
twenty-four ;  if  he  was  over,  it  lasted  for  five  years. 
The  length  of  service  rarely  exceeded  seven,  as  it 
was  contrary  to  public  policy  that  it  should  continue 
too  long. 

Frequency  of  Change. 

A  serious  drawback  to  indentured  labor  was  the 
frequency  of  the  change  distinguishing  this  form  of 
service.  In  a  few  years  the  servant's  time  would 
come  to  an  end,  and  his  place  would  have  to  be  sup- 
plied by  another.  The  planter  might  introduce  an 
hundred  industrious  workingmen  who  might  prove 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTUBY.  55 

invaluable  to  him  while  their  covenants  lasted,  but 
at  the  end  of  five  years,  when  their  hands  had  be- 
come skilful  and  their  bodies  hardened  to  the  change 
of  climate,  they  recovered  their  freedom  and  almost 
invariably  left  the  plantation  immediately  to  found 
homes  of  their  own.  Unless  the  landowner  had  had 
the  foresight  to  provide  against  their  departure  by 
the  importation  of  other  servants,  he  would  be  left 
without  men  to  tend  or  reap  his  crops,  or  to  widen 
the  area  of  his  new  grounds.  It  was  not  simply  a 
desire  to  own  vast  tracts  which  led  the  Virginian  of 
that  day  to  bring  in  successive  bands  of  agricultural 
servants,  whose  introduction  entitled  him  to  a  pro- 
portionate number  of  headrights;  in  the  great  ma- 
jority of  cases  his  object  was  to  obtain  laborers  who 
might  take  the  place  of  those  whose  terms  were  on 
the  point  of  expiring.  It  was  this  constantly  recur- 
ring necessity — which  must  have  been  the  source  of 
much  anxiety  and  annoyance  as  well  as  of  a  heavy 
pecuniary  outlay — that  caused  the  planter  to  prefer 
youths  to  adults,  for,  while  their  physical  strength 
might  have  been  less,  yet  the  periods  for  which  they 
were  bound  extended  over  a  longer  time. 

The  Superiority  of  Slave  Labor. 

It  can  be  readily  seen  that,  from  this  economic 
point  of  view,  the  slave  was  a  far  more  desirable 
form  of  property  than  the  indentured  servant.  As 
his  term  was  not  for  a  few  years  but  for  life,  there 
was  no  solicitude  as  to  how  his  place  was  to  be  filled. 
He  not  only  belonged  to  his  master  up  to  death,  but 
generally  left  behind  him  a  family  of  children  who 
were  old  enough  to  give  important  assistance  in  the 
tobacco  fields.  In  physical  strength  he  was  the 
equal  of  the  white  laborer  of  the  same  age,  and  in 
power  of  endurance  he  was  the  superior.  Not  only 
was  he  more  easily  controlled,  but  he  throve  on 


56  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

plainer  fare  and  was  satisfied  with  humbler  lodg- 
ings. Nor  was  he  subject  to  seasoning — a  cause  of 
much  loss  of  time  in  connection  with  the  raw  white 
laborers ;  nor  could  he  demand  the  grain  and  clothing 
which,  by  the  custom  of  the  country,  were  allowed 
the  white  servants  at  the  close  of  their  terms — a 
heavy  drain  on  the  resources  of  even  the  wealthy 
planters. 

In  the  light  of  the  slave's  economic  superiority 
over  the  white  servant,  it  is  surprising  to  find  that 
African  bondsmen  were  not  earlier  imported,  in 
great  numbers,  into  Virginia — the  explanation  of 
which  lies  in  the  insufficient  means  then  existing  for 
their  conveyance  across  the  ocean  to  supply  the  de- 
mand. It  was  not  until  1680  that  the  number  brought 
in  began  to  increase  substantially,  and  this  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  Eoyal  African  Company,  which 
had  been  chartered  in  1662,  with  the  virtual  grant 
of  a  monopoly,  became,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
extremely  active  in  the  traffic.  Many  of  the  planters 
after  1680  transmitted  their  orders  for  slaves  to 
their  London  merchants  to  be  filed  with  the  com- 
pany's agents  in  that  city,  while  a  large  number 
also  were  bought,  in  Virginian  waters,  of  vessels 
which  had  been  licensed  by  the  company.  Many 
were  introduced  in  New  England  bottoms  straight 
from  the  West  Indies.  In  1649  the  negro  popula- 
tion was  three  hundred,  in  1671  two  thousand,  but 
by  1700  their  number  had  probably  quadrupled. 

A  white  agricultural  laborer,  with  the  usual  term 
of  five  years  to  serve,  was  valued  at  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  pounds  sterling.  On  the  other  hand  a  raw 
negro,  as  early  as  1669,  was,  on  his  arrival  in  the 
colony,  sold  by  the  Eoyal  African  Company  for 
twenty  pounds.  Later  on  a  native  male  negro  adult 
brought  thirty  pounds  sterling,  and  a  native  female 
from  twenty-five  to  thirty  pounds,  a  sum,  in  our  pres- 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  57 

ent  currency,  equal  in  value  to  five  hundred  or  six 
hundred  dollars. 

Having  obtained  all  the  laborers — whether  white 
indentured  servants  or  black  slaves — he  needed  to 
bring  his  new  plantation  under  cultivation,  what 
were  the  crops  which  the  patentee  sought  to  pro- 
duce! During  the  first  years  following  the  founda- 
tion of  Jamestown  there  were  spasmodic  efforts  to 
produce  a  considerable  variety  of  commodities.  Cot- 
ton was  experimented  with,  hemp  and  flax,  mulberry 
trees  for  silk  and  vines  for  wines.  Wheat,  also,  was 
sown  in  small  quantities  down  to  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury. But  the  really  profitable  crops  soon  narrowed 
down  to  maize  and  tobacco.  Although  landowners 
were  dependent  upon  maize  for  bread,  the  General 
Assembly  was  compelled  to  pass  a  law  from  year 
to  year  to  force  them  to  plant  a  certain  acreage  in 
Indian  corn.  The  irresistible  disposition  was  to  pro- 
duce tobacco  alone.  Never  has  any  other  staple  en- 
tered so  deeply  into  the  spirit  and  framework  of  any 
modern  community — it  was  to  the  colony  what  the 
potato  has  been  to  Ireland,  the  coffee  berry  to  Bra- 
zil, the  grape  to  France  and  corn  to  Egypt;  but  it 
was  something  more,  for  it  was  in  universal  use  as 
the  currency  in  which  all  debts,  from  the  public  taxes 
to  the  grave-digger's  bill,  were  paid.  Moreover,  the 
whole  system  of  large  plantations  was  directly  at- 
tributable to  the  recurring  need  of  virgin  soil  in  to- 
bacco culture,  and  from  that  system  arose  those 
social  characteristics  of  the  higher  planting  class 
which  gave  Virginia  such  unique  distinction  in  the 
colonial  age. 

Apart  from  the  great  demand  in  England  for  the 
leaf,  tobacco  had  particular  advantages  over  all  other 
agricultural  crops.  First,  it  could  be  produced  in 
larger  quantities  to  the  acre  than  any  other,  a  fact 
of  vast  importance  in  a  country  where  so  much  labor 


98  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

was  required  to  strip  the  surface  of  the  thick  growth 
of  timber  preparatory  to  tillage.  Besides,  as  tobacco 
could  be  shipped  in  a  more  compressed  bulk,  a  cargo 
of  it  was  far  more  valuable  than  an  equal  cargo  of 
any  other  product.  The  freight  charge  was  propor- 
tionately smaller  because  the  price  at  which  the  leaf 
was  sold  was  so  much  higher. 

New  England,  having  practically  nothing  to  export 
to  England,  was  compelled  to  exchange  her  timber 
and  provisions  in  the  West  Indies  for  rum,  sugar, 
molasses  and  slaves  as  her  only  means  of  procuring 
the  manufactured  supplies  which  she  could  not  her- 
self make  at  her  own  hearthstones.  Virginia,  having 
a  direct  trade  with  the  mother  country  in  a  com- 
modity always  in  demand  there — a  demand  that  as- 
sured its  inhabitants  an  abundance  of  manufactured 
supplies — was  deprived  of  one  of  the  strongest  mo- 
tives in  which  local  manufactures  have  their  origin. 
The  English  ship  which  carried  away  the  planter's 
annual  tobacco  crop  from  his  own  wharf  brought 
back  all  the  clothes,  all  the  furniture,  all  the  tools 
and  all  the  implements  he  needed.  But  while  Vir- 
ginia was  not,  in  the  modern  sense,  a  seat  of  manu- 
factures, it  would  be  inaccurate  to  say  that  domestic 
manufactures  in  the  ruder  forms  were  unknown. 
There  were  few  homes  in  that  colony  which  did  not 
contain  a  spinning  wheel  or  a  weaver's  frame;  there 
were  no  important  plantations  which  did  not  number 
among  its  white  servants  or  its  slaves  skilful  car- 
penters, blacksmiths,  saddlers,  masons  and  brick- 
layers. 

n. — Social  Life  Under  the  Plantation  System. 

Such,  in  brief  outline,  was  the  general  economic 
history  of  each  plantation  in  those  early  times.  The 
entire  community  was  made  up  of  plantations  and 
plantations  only,  and,  therefore,  the  economic  history 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTUEY.  59 

of  the  single  plantation  was  the  economic  history  of 
the  entire  community — with  this  slight  modification 
that,  as  the  years  passed,  the  ownership  of  many 
estates  changed  hands  either  by  purchase  or  descent. 
Long  before  the  end  of  the  century  all  the  lands  in 
the  older  parts  of  the  colony  had  been  taken  up,  many 
substantial  mansions  erected,  influential  families 
founded  and  all  the  varied  interests  of  an  organized 
social  life  created  and  cemented.  When  we  come  to 
examine  the  social  framework  of  the  community  in 
that  age,  we  find  it  much  more  complex  than  the  eco- 
nomic framework.  This  was  due  to  the  existence  of 
several  distinct  social  classes — there  was  first  the 
African  slaves  standing  on  the  lowest  footing,  next 
the  indentured  white  servants,  and  finally,  overtop- 
ping all,  the  large  landowners. 

Although  for  the  time  being  the  white  servants 
occupied  a  very  subordinate  position  socially,  yet  it 
was  from  this  class  that  the  ranks  of  the  small  land- 
owners were  recruited  chiefly.  Many  men  who  be- 
gan in  this  humble  character  accumulated,  after  the 
close  of  their  terms,  good  estates,  exercised  wide  in- 
fluence and  even  filled  important  offices.  There  is, 
indeed,  reason  to  think  that  some  of  the  agricultural 
servants  were  of  highly  respectable  social  origin,  and 
that  some,  like  Adam  Thoroughgood,  had  simply 
bound  themselves  out  in  order  to  learn  the  art  of 
tobacco  growing.  But  the  most  ordinary  way  in 
which  the  ranks  of  the  small  landowners  were 
swelled  was  by  the  emigration  of  yeomen  from  Eng- 
land. Previous  to  1650,  as  we  have  seen,  the  aver- 
age size  of  the  patent  was  446  acres.  In  most  in- 
stances, perhaps,  these  patents  were  sued  out  by 
men  who  had  acquired  the  necessary  headrights  by 
the  importation  of  their  families  and  a  couple  of 
agricultural  servants.  The  social  esteem  in  which 
the  yeomen,  as  a  class,  were  held  was  undoubtedly 


60  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

enhanced,  not  only  by  the  restriction  to  landowners 
of  the  right  of  suffrage,  but  also  by  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  slaves.  The  presence  of  negro  bonds- 
men had  a  marked  tendency  to  foster  pride  of  race 
in  every  branch  of  the  white  population,  for,  to  be 
white,  gave  the  distinction  of  color  even  to  the  agri- 
cultural servants — to  be  white  and  also  to  be  free 
combined  the  distinction  of  color  with  the  distinction 
of  liberty. 

The  class  of  large  planters  was  necessarily  small 
in  comparison  with  that  of  yeomen,  but  it  was  they 
who  gave  charm  and  elevation  to  the  colony's  social 
life,  although,  as  we  shall  see,  the  recreations  and 
diversions  of  that  life  were  shared  by  all  freemen, 
and  in  a  measure  even  by  the  slave  and  indentured 
servant.  A  citizen  like  Nicholas  Spencer,  or  Richard 
Lee,  in  Westmoreland,  Eobert  Beverley  in  Middle- 
sex, Nathaniel  Bacon,  Sr.,  in  York,  Adam  Thorough- 
good  in  Lower  Norfolk,  or  "William  Byrd  in  Henrico, 
occupied  the  position  held  by  the  greatest  squire  in 
an  English  parish.  He  owned  the  principal  pew  in 
the  parish  church,  sat  at  the  head  of  the  justices  on 
the  county  bench,  was  colonel  of  the  county  militia, 
and  senior  warden  of  the  local  vestry.  It  was  these 
men  and  their  fellows  who,  with  their  families,  con- 
stituted the  highest  social  body  of  the  colony,  and 
reflected  as  such  all  that  was  most  attractive  in  its 
social  character. 

The  Origin  of  the  Planting  Class. 

What  was  the  origin  of  the  higher  planting  class  ? 
By  the  end  of  the  century  a  large  number  of  the  con- 
spicuous members  of  the  landed  gentry  had  been 
born  in  the  country.  But  from  1618  down  to  1700,  not 
a  year  went  by  that  this  class  did  not  receive  acces- 
sions from  England  of  men  of  equal  social  standing, 
and  almost  equal  means,  if  not  actual,  prospective. 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  61 

What  were  the  influences  which  led  these  men  to  emi- 
grate to  Virginia?  First,  the  restless  and  enter- 
prising spirit  of  the  English,  which  has  made  them 
the  greatest  colonizers  of  modern  times;  secondly, 
the  narrow  chances  of  fortune  in  that  age  in  their 
native  land,  even  for  men  of  influential  family  con- 
nections. The  foreign  empire  of  England  had  not 
then  spread  entirely  around  the  globe  to  furnish  an 
enormous  group  of  civil  and  military  offices  to  be 
filled  by  the  cadets  of  well-known  English  houses, 
nor  was  the  English  regular  army  and  navy  yet  large 
enough  to  afford  much  room  for  the  host  of  young 
men  whose  parents  were  seeking  to  set  them  up  in 
life,  nor  did  trade  or  the  professions,  or  even  the 
ordinary  manual  callings,  supply  all  the  employ- 
ment needed.  How  natural  that  the  father  of  many 
children — and  England  was  as  noted  then  as  now  for 
large  families — whether  landowner,  clergyman,  law- 
yer or  physician,  should  have  turned  to  Virginia  as 
offering  a  place  of  settlement  for  at  least  some  of 
his  sons. 

There  were  particular  reasons  why  that  colony 
should  appeal  to  the  English  landowner  under  the 
circumstances :  first,  it  was  firmly  loyal  to  the  mon- 
archy; secondly,  its  church  establishment  was  mod- 
eled precisely  upon  that  of  the  mother  country; 
thirdly,  the  entire  power  of  Virginian  society,  even 
in  the  period  of  manhood  suffrage,  was  possessed 
and  directed  by  the  landed  proprietors.  That  society 
was  composed  practically  altogether  of  such  propri- 
etors and  their  dependents,  and,  therefore,  on  reach- 
ing the  colony,  the  son  of  the  English  country  gen- 
tleman could  take  up  the  same  calling  as  his  own 
ancestors  had  always  followed,  and  would  enter  upon 
essentially  the  same  general  life  as  they  had  led 
before  him — only  accentuated  in  Virginia  by  the  dis- 
persion of  the  population. 


«2  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Hardly  less  strong  was  the  appeal  which  the  col- 
ony made  to  the  English  father  who  was  a  merchant. 
He  saw  that  in  addition  to  the  independence,  refine- 
ment and  heartiness  of  its  social  life,  the  colony  pos- 
sessed in  tobacco  culture  a  means  by  which  his  son, 
starting  there  with  a  fair  estate,  might  steadily  im- 
prove his  fortunes.  He  knew,  also,  how  profitable 
trading  in  that  commodity  could  be  made  by  the 
employment  of  capital  and  shrewdness  combined. 

Social  Organization. 

It  was  a  conspicuous  feature  of  the  social  life  of 
Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  century  that,  like  the 
political  system,  it  was  fully  organized  from  the  be- 
ginning. There  was  never  a  period  when,  as  in  our 
western  communities,  every  social  division  was  sub- 
merged in  a  rude  social  equality.  On  the  contrary, 
all  the  immemorial  social  distinctions  took  root  there 
at  once,  as  if  the  population  of  some  English  county 
had  been  moved  bodily  over  sea.  There  was  not  the 
least  desire  to  leave  the  old  privileges  and  customs 
behind.  Proofs  of  social  divisions  and  distinctions 
were  as  conspicuous  to  the  Englishman  after  his 
arrival  in  the  colony  as  if  he  had  passed,  not  across 
the  ocean,  but  from  Devon  over  into  Hampshire,  or 
from  Sussex  over  into  Surrey.  For  instance,  one  of 
the  most  ordinary  social  badges  was  the  coat  of 
arms,  to  which  most  of  the  prominent  families  ap- 
pear to  have  had  a  legal  right.  In  using  these 
badges,  such  families  were  simply  doing  what  their 
fathers  had  done  before  them  in  England,  and  what 
they  themselves  had  done  previous  to  their  emi- 
gration. 

Class  Distinctions. 

Nowhere  was  there  a  more  formal  recognition  of 
class  distinctions  than  in  the  legal  documents.  All 
the  terms  showing  such  distinctions  were  there  in 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  63 

nse,  such  as  ''yeoman"  and  ''gentleman,"  "es- 
quire ' '  and  ' '  Honorable. ' '  In  conversation,  the  term 
"mister"  was  doubtless  applied  equally  to  gentle- 
men and  yeomen,  but  in  documents  it  appears  to 
have  been  reserved  for  gentlemen  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  designation.  So  with  the  word  "gentle- 
man" itself — it  was  never  in  such  a  document  em- 
ployed with  inexactness,  but  quite  invariably  nicely 
and  advisedly.  But  the  most  valued  of  all  titles  was 
"esquire,"  now  used  so  indiscriminately,  but  in 
those  times  with  such  perfect  precision.  It  seems  to 
have  been  confined  to  the  members  of  the  Upper 
House  of  Assembly,  a  position  which,  as  well  in  its 
social  dignity  as  in  its  relation  to  legislation,  was 
comparable  to  that  of  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Lords.  The  term  "Honorable"  was  applied  only  to 
the  incumbent  of  the  great  office  of  Secretary,  Audi- 
tor or  Treasurer. 

Practically  no  distinction  was  created  in  the  social 
life  of  Virginia  in  these  early  times  by  the  existence 
of  the  law  of  primogeniture,  as  that  law  was  very 
slightly  in  operation.  When  in  operation  at  all,  it 
was  generally  so  under  the  Statute  of  Descent,  which 
gave  all  the  land  to  the  eldest  son  should  the  father 
die  intestate.  But  the  almost  universal  rule  then 
was  for  that  father  to  divide  his  property  among  all 
his  children,  because  in  that  century  estates  were 
composed  entirely  of  land,  household  articles  and 
live  stock,  and  unless  the  owner  provided  for  his 
younger  offspring  by  dividing  and  bequeathing  to 
them  a  part  of  this  property,  he  would  have  nothing 
to  leave  them ;  secondly,  there  were  then  no  arts,  and 
practically  no  trades,  as  in  England,  for  the  younger 
sons  to  turn  to  for  a  livelihood,  nor  was  there  room 
in  such  professions  as  law  and  medicine  for  many, 
nor  openings,  as  in  the  English  towns  and  cities,  in 
mercantile  life,  for  what  mercantile  life  did  exist  was 


64  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

restricted  to  a  few  stores,  and  to  casual  dealings  in 
tobacco  and  imported  goods  on  a  large  scale. 

Virginians  and  the  Mother  Country. 

In  studying  the  spirit  of  the  people,  one  is  very 
much  struck  with  the  vigor  of  the  social  tie  which, 
in  those  times,  bound  the  Virginians  to  the  mother 
country.  They  clung  with  tenacity  to  the  habits  and 
customs,  the  moral  ideas  and  standards  that  pre- 
vailed and  governed  there.  This  was  chiefly  due  to 
the  fact  that  such  a  large  part  of  the  population  had 
not  left  their  native  land  over  sea  until  long  after 
the  age  of  their  earliest  and  most  graphic  impres- 
sions. The  children  of  an  emigrant,  though  born  in 
Virginia,  are  likely  to  have  had  almost  as  vivid  a 
conception  of  the  mother  country  as  their  father,  for 
that  father,  especially  if  sprung  from  the  English 
landed  gentry,  was  certain  to  have  omitted  no  oppor- 
tunity of  recalling  for  their  instruction  or  amuse- 
ment his  own  childhood  and  youth  in  his  native  coun- 
try, of  describing  all  the  varied  scenes  associated 
with  his  early  experiences,  of  picturing  the  old 
home,  of  delineating  the  characters  of  the  different 
members  of  the  circle  of  kindred,  and  relating  an 
hundred  interesting  stories  drawn  from  the  long  an- 
nals of  the  family  history.  Members  of  all  classes 
spoke  of  England  as  ' '  home ; ' '  even  persons  born  in 
Virginia,  who  had  never  seen  and  never  expected  to 
see  England,  always  designated  it  by  the  same  lov- 
ing word.  It  was  not  simply  the  demands  of  busi- 
ness that,  during  the  Seventeenth  century,  led  so 
many  citizens  of  the  colony  to  visit  the  mother  coun- 
try— a  deep  love  of  their  native  land  influenced 
many  of  those  who  had  first  seen  the  light  there  to 
return — while  a  natural  curiosity  to  see  what  had 
been  so  often  described  to  them,  and  a  desire  to  meet 
relatives  whom  they  had  never  met,  prompted  many 
of  the  native  colonists  to  maka  the  voyage. 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  65 

The  little  band  of  sea  captains  were  very  active 
in  keeping  up  an  uninterrupted  communication  be- 
tween English  and  Virginian  kinsmen.  Many  a 
verbal  message  and  letter  were  carried  by  them  from 
relatives  in  Virginia  to  relatives  in  England,  or  the 
reverse;  and  through  them,  also,  there  was  a  con- 
stant exchange  of  gifts  testifying  to  mutual  interest, 
affection  and  esteem.  Now  it  was  an  assortment  of 
hickory  nuts  or  walnuts,  or  slips  of  sassafras  and 
pawpaw ;  now  a  butt  of  cider,  or  a  caged  redbird  or 
mockingbird ;  now  a  flying  squirrel,  opossum  or  rac- 
coon. 

There  were  numerous  bequests  from  the  Virginian 
branch  of  a  family  to  the  English,  and  a  like  interest, 
though  of  a  more  general  character,  was  also  re- 
flected in  bequests  for  the  benefit  of  indigent  per- 
sons dwelling  in  those  English  communities  with 
which  the  testators  had  been  associated  in  early  life. 
In  many  instances  Virginian  children  were  recom- 
mended to  the  care  of  their  kindred  oversea  while 
receiving  an  education  at  some  English  school.  Love 
of  the  mother  country  was  also  disclosed  in  the  ob- 
servance of  old  English  domestic  customs,  such  as 
gifts  by  last  will  of  mourning  rings  to  relatives  and 
friends;  bestowal,  by  the  same  instrument,  of  the 
distinction  of  heirlooms  on  articles  in  household  use, 
such  as  silver  or  furniture,  which  had  acquired  cer- 
tain cherished  associations  for  one  reason  or  an- 
other; the  naming  of  the  family  residence  after  the 
ancestral  seat  in  England;  the  burial  in  the  chancel 
of  the  parish  church  of  those  citizens  who,  in  their 
lifetime,  had  occupied  a  very  exalted  place  in  popu- 
lar esteem. 

The  Home  Life. 

Nowhere  were  the  characteristic  features  of  the 
social  life  of  the  colony  more  faithfully  presented 
than  in  its  homes.  As  early  as  1675  the  general  com- 

Vol    1—5. 


66  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

munity  had  been  established  long  enough  for  its 
principal  residences,  in  their  outer  and  inner  aspect 
alike,  to  have  acquired  some  of  the  dignity  distin- 
guishing the  ancient  English  manor  houses;  and  in 
their  intimate  domestic  annals,  nrach  of  that  charm 
which  was  thrown  around  the  society  of  England  in 
that  age  by  ease  of  fortune,  refined  manners,  wide 
culture  and  the  amenities  springing  from  the  closest 
bonds  of  kinship  and  friendship. 

Even  these  superior  residences  were,  as  a  rule, 
built  of  wood.  The  history  of  William  Fitzhugh's 
mansion  was  the  history  of  nearly  all — it  had  gradu- 
ally spread  out  by  the  erection  of  wing  after  wing 
as  his  family  grew  in  size,  until  the  whole  covered 
a  considerable  area  of  ground.  The  homes  of  this 
class  of  citizens  contained,  in  the  way  of  halls,  dining- 
rooms  and  chambers,  ample  space  for  the  most  gen 
erous  entertainment  of  guests  as  well  as  for  the 
comfortable  accommodation  of  the  regular  inmates. 
The  different  apartments  were  furnished  and  orna- 
mented after  the  most  substantial  and  attractive  pat- 
terns afforded  by  England.  There  was  every  variety 
of  handsome  bed,  couch,  chair  and  table.  The  floors 
were  covered  with  carpets,  the  windows  shaded  by 
linen  curtains,  the  chimneys  hung  with  printed  cot- 
tons, the  bedframes  adorned  with  gaily  colored  va- 
lences, the  walls,  in  some  cases,  hung  with  tapestry, 
and  in  all,  lined  above  the  floor  with  panneling.  In 
some  houses,  numerous  portraits,  in  others,  collec- 
tions of  books  were  to  be  seen.  Open  cupboards  of- 
fered a  shining  array  of  both  pewter  and  silver.  In 
every  drawing-room  there  were  to  be  found  musical 
instruments  such  as  the  virginal,  the  handlyre,  fid- 
dle, violin,  flute,  recorder  and  hautboy. 

The  wardrobes  of  men  and  women  alike  contained 
clothes  of  the  latest  English  fashion.  On  gay  occa- 
sions the  men  strutted  about  in  camlet  coats,  with 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  67 

sleeves  ending  in  lace  ruffles;  in  waistcoats,  black, 
white  and  blue,  or  adorned  with  patterns  of  Turkey- 
worked  texture,  and  in  trousers  made  of  the  finest 
plush  or  broadcloth.  In  their  shoes  they  wore  shin- 
ing brass,  steel  or  silver  buckles,  while  they  carried 
in  their  hands  or  pockets  silk  or  lace  handkerchiefs, 
delicately  scented.  As  to  the  ladies '  dress,  there  are 
in  the  inventories  numerous  references  to  silk  or 
flowered  gowns,  bodices  of  blue  linen  or  green  satin, 
waistcoats,  bonnets,  and  petticoats  trimmed  with 
silk  or  silver  lace,  sarsanet  and  calico  hoods,  scarfs 
of  brilliant  shades  of  color,  mantles  of  crimson  taf- 
feta, laced  and  gallooned  shoes,  gilt  and  golden 
stomachers. 

The  tables  of  the  wealthy  citizens  were  loaded  with 
a  most  varied  abundance  of  food.  The  herds  of  cat- 
tle which  ran  almost  wild  supplied  an  inexhaustible 
quantity  of  milk,  butter,  cheese,  veal  and  beef,  while 
the  hams  were  pronounced  by  travelers  to  be  equal 
in  flavor  to  those  of  Westphalia.  Deer  were  shot  in 
such  numbers  that  the  people  were  said  to  be  tired  of 
venison.  On  every  plantation  a  flock  of  sheep  nibbled 
the  pastures ;  poultry  abounded  in  every  houseyard, 
partridges  in  the  open  fields,  wild  turkeys  in  the 
forests.  Clouds  of  wild  pigeons  broke  down  the 
limbs  of  trees  with  their  weight  in  the  spring,  and 
in  autumn,  countless  duck  and  wild  geese  darkened 
the  surface  of  the  creeks,  rivers  and  bays.  Perch, 
bass,  shad,  pike  and  sheepshead  were  to  be  caught 
almost  at  the  very  door,  while  oysters  and  other 
shell  fish  could  be  raked  up  by  the  bushel  from  the 
bottom  of  the  nearest  inlet.  Peaches,  plums  and  ap- 
ples were  produced  in  every  orchard,  and  figs  and 
grapes  in  every  garden.  Sloes,  scuppernongs  and 
pawpaws  were  to  be  found  along  the  banks  of  every 
shady  stream.  Wild  strawberries  were  so  plentiful 
that  the  domestic  berry  was  neglected.  Huge  pump- 


68  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

kins  and  masses  of  peas  sprang  up  in  every  corn- 
field between  the  stalks  of  maize.  Potatoes,  arti- 
chokes, onions,  cymblins,  watermelons — all  were  cul- 
tivated in  profusion.  Hickory  and  hazel  nuts  were 
to  be  picked  up  by  the  peck  in  the  woods.  Every 
table  was  supplied  with  homebrewed  beer  and  cider. 
Perry  was  made  from  the  juice  of  pears,  punch  from 
West  Indian  rum.  The  wines  in  domestic  use  were 
claret,  Fayal,  Madeira  and  Ehenish.  It  was  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  times  that  these  fine  wines  could  be 
bought  in  all  the  taverns. 

With  such  abundance  prevailing,  it  was  natural 
that  the  people  should  have  been  extraordinarily  hos- 
pitable— a  feeling  further  promoted  by  the  secluded 
life  of  the  plantation.  By  1675  negroes  had  become 
sufficiently  numerous  to  furnish  all  the  principal 
households  with  trained  servants  for  life.  Do- 
mestic service  of  that  kind  became  more  abundant 
still  after  that  date,  making  the  liberal  entertain- 
ment of  friends  and  strangers  less  troublesome  than 
ever.  The  spirit  of  hospitality  was  further  encour- 
aged by  the  facilities  for  getting  about  from  resi- 
dence to  residence  afforded  by  sail  or  rowboats,  for, 
as  we  have  seen,  every  important  mansion  was  situ- 
ated on  a  navigable  stream.  The  traveler  was  re- 
ceived everywhere  with  distinction.  Beverley  de- 
clared that  the  only  recommendation  needed  by  the 
stranger  was  that  he  was  ' '  a  human  creature, ' '  and 
that  he  had  but  to  inquire  of  anyone  he  met  on  the 
public  road  the  shortest  way  to  the  nearest  gentle- 
man's seat. 

The  Diversions  of  the  People. 

What  were  the  popular  diversions'?  Very  free 
drinking  in  private  and  public  was  certainly  one  of 
the  most  favored.  Governor  Berkeley  declared  that 
"Virginia  was  as  sober  and  temperate  a  colony,  con- 
sidering their  quality,  as  was  ever  sent  out  of  the 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  69 

kingdom,"  by  which  he  meant  that  the  Virginian 
planters,  on  the  whole,  were  less  bibulous  than  the 
English  gentlemen  of  the  same  period.  Whenever, 
however,  a  little  company  of  citizens  gathered  to- 
gether, whether  as  appraisers  to  value  an  estate,  or 
as  commissioners  to  accept  a  new  bridge,  or  as 
county  justices  to  hear  causes,  a  liberal  supply  of 
spirits  was  kept  near  at  hand  to  quench  their  thirst. 
But  it  was  not  always  at  their  own  tables,  or  in 
taverns,  or  at  the  courthouses  that  the  planters  laid 
the  ground  for  the  inroads  of  gout — there  is  at  least 
one  recorded  instance  of  a  little  band  of  wealthy 
gentlemen  having  built  in  one  of  the  counties  a  large 
banquetting  hall. 

As  we  have  seen,  there  were  numerous  musical 
instruments  to  be  observed  in  the  drawing-rooms. 
The  county  records  show  that,  among  the  slaves  and 
servants,  there  were  some  who  were  especially  val- 
ued for  their  skill  in  performing  with  the  fiddle,  and 
that  this  skill  was  often  called  into  use  at  the  enter- 
tainments in  private  houses.  There  is  some  evidence 
of  play-acting  occurring  under  the  same  roofs,  which 
was  natural  enough  after  the  Kestoration,  when  the 
theatre  had  become  in  England  a  popular  passion. 
Governor  Berkeley  himself  was  a  playwright  of  no 
mean  ability,  and  very  probably  encouraged  this 
form  of  amusement  in  the  parlors  of  his  friends 
among  the  planters. 

The  game  of  ninepins  was  played  at  all  the  tav- 
erns and  in  many  private  residences.  Equally  popu- 
lar was  the  game  of  cards  known  as  "put."  These 
games,  as  well  as  dice  throwing,  led  to  much  gam- 
bling. Wagers  were  always  sustained  by  the  courts 
if  the  bet  had  been  first  reduced  to  writing,  and  was 
not  in  its  nature  injurious  to  public  morals.  But  the 
betting  was  perhaps  most  active  at  the  horse  races, 
which  formed  the  most  popular  of  all  open-air  diver- 


70  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

sions.  As  late  as  1673  only  gentlemen  were  permit- 
ted to  enter  horses  on  the  regular  race  course,  and  in 
that  year  a  tailor  was  heavily  fined  by  court  for 
daring  to  violate  this  rule.  The  ordinary  heats  took 
place  on  Saturday  as  a  half  holiday,  but  in  some 
parts  of  the  colony  there  were  what  were  known  as 
Fall  and  Spring  races. 

It  was  the  habit  of  the  Virginians  of  every  class, 
from  their  early  youth,  to  use  the  gun.  During  many 
years  the  laws  of  the  colony  required  that  the  head 
of  every  family  should  keep  in  his  house,  ready  to 
hand,  at  least  one  firearm  of  some  sort  for  every 
person  under  him  able  to  employ  such  a  weapon. 
Whether  directed  against  wild  game  or  Indians,  the 
aim  of  the  gunners  was  among  the  surest  of  those 
times.  There  was  an  extraordinary  variety  and 
abundance  of  birds  for  the  exhibition  of  quick  sight 
and  firm  nerves — partridge,  wild  pigeon  and  wild 
turkey  on  land,  the  wild  goose  and  wild  duck  on  the 
water,  furnished  constant  sport  in  season.  And  so 
with  the  game  pursued  with  dogs  only.  Though 
foxes  were  hunted,  there  is  no  surviving  record  of 
packs  of  trained  hounds  having  been  used.  Hares 
were  caught  in  large  numbers  by  running  them  down 
or  smoking  them  out  of  hollow  trees.  Eaccoons  and 
opossums  were  tracked  at  night  in  the  forests,  while 
bears  and  panthers  were  killed  even  in  the  older 
parts  of  the  colony  as  late  as  1683.  Wolf  driving 
was,  in  some  counties,  an  annual  diversion,  while  in 
all,  capturing  wild  horses  furnished  a  profitable 
amusement.  Under  the  existing  custom,  all  animals 
of  this  kind  without  an  owner's  mark  belong  to  who- 
ever could  overtake  and  catch  them.  Another  popu- 
lar sport  was  fishing,  chiefly  with  the  rod,  but  seines, 
cast  and  stationary  nets,  as  well  as  gill  lines,  were  in 
common  use.  The  most  exciting  form  of  the  sport, 
however,  was  "striking,"  a  method  adopted  from 


SEVENTEENTH  CENTTJEY.  71 

the  Indians.  This  was  done  after  nightfall  with 
spears  by  the  light  of  a  flaming  brazier  fixed  in  the 
prow  of  the  boat. 

Much  diversion  was  also  derived  by  the  people 
from  such  public  or  semi-public  occasions  as  the 
funeral,  wedding,  the  assemblage  at  church,  court 
and  muster  days. 

Having  in  most  of  the  counties  to  travel  far  to 
attend  a  funeral,  the  persons  present  were  always 
treated  by  the  family  of  the  deceased  as  special 
guests  who  were  in  particular  need  of  refreshment 
after  the  obsequies  were  concluded.  Extraordinary 
provision  was  made  for  their  entertainment.  At 
one  funeral  occurring  in  York  county  in  1667,  it  re- 
quired twenty-two  gallons  of  cider,  twenty-four  of 
beer  and  five  of  brandy  to  assuage  the  mourners' 
thirst.  A  whole  ox  and  a  half  dozen  sheep  were  not 
infrequently  roasted  to  satisfy  their  hunger. 

The  wedding  was  marked  by  a  gayety  that  was 
both  prolonged  and  extravagant.  The  country  neigh- 
borhoods were  not  so  thickly  settled  that  an  occasion 
of  this  kind  occurred  so  frequently  as,  by  rapid  repe- 
tition, to  dull  the  edge  of  the  pleasure  derived  from 
dancing,  feasting  and  a  reunion  of  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances. Most  of  the  guests  had  to  come  from 
distant  plantations,  and  were  in  no  humor  to  shorten 
the  festivities.  Of  a  more  promiscuous  character 
was  the  popular  assembly  at  the  musters.  From 
the  remotest  corners  of  the  county  the  people  gath- 
ered, some  trudging  on  foot,  some  perhaps  traveling 
in  cart  and  rude  carriages,  but  the  greater  number 
riding  on  horseback,  with  their  wives  and  daughters 
perched  up  behind  them  on  pillions.  The  muster 
itself,  by  varying  the  character  of  the  occasion  with 
a  military  display,  gave  a  fillip  to  its  social  pleas- 
ures. The  event  very  probably  also  had  its  darker 
side  in  the  presence  of  many  who  were  disposed  to 


72  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

indulge  too  freely  in  spirits.  A  free  enjoyment  of 
rough  horseplay  was  also  a  characteristic  of  the 
monthly  court.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  its  principal 
aspects  were  political  and  business,  the  occasion  was 
invariably  enlivened  by  drunken  bouts,  which  were 
not  entirely  confined  to  the  lowest  class  of  the  popu- 
lation present.  This  was  so  well  known  that  discon- 
tented indentured  servants  very  often  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  relaxed  vigilance  of  that  hour  to  make 
their  preparations  for  flight. 

The  holding  of  services  in  the  parish  church  gave 
rise  to  an  occasion  which  was  as  remarkable  for  its 
social  as  for  its  religious  aspects.  In  this  edifice  all 
the  free  people  of  the  parish  were  required  by  law  to 
assemble  every  Sabbath  morning.  Apart  from  any 
desire  to  join  in  public  worship,  the  prospect  of  meet- 
ing friends  and  acquaintances  must  have  had  a 
strong  influence  in  bringing  a  large  number  of  per- 
sons together  at  the  church  door.  Before  and  after 
the  hour  of  service,  they  had  a  full  opportunity  to 
mingle  in  the  closest  social  intercourse.  For  a  few 
hours  the  church  was  the  centre  of  overflowing  life. 
A  spirit  of  social  kindness,  as  well  as  of  religious 
devotion,  was  nourished  from  Sunday  to  Sunday; 
the  bonds  of  mutual  sympathy  and  helpfulness  were 
made  more  intimate;  the  more  innocent  vanities 
aired;  the  manners  of  the  young  improved  by  con- 
tact with  their  elders,  and  the  minds  of  the  old  re- 
freshed by  renewed  association  with  their  neighbors. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Abstracts  of  Proceedings  of  the  Virginia  Company 
of  London  (2  Vols.,  Va.  Hist.  Society  Publications);  Beverley,  Robert: 
History  of  Virginia  (Richmond,  Va.,  1855);  British  Public  Records  Office, 
Original  Papers  Relating  to  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century;  Brown, 
Alexander:  Genesis  of  the  United  States  (2  Vols.,  Boston,  1891);  Bruce, 
Philip  Alexander:  Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury (New  York,  1896);  Bulloch,  William:  Virginia  (London,  1649); 
Byrd,  William,  Sr.:  Letters  of  (Va.  Hist.  Soc.  Mss.  Colls.);  County  Rec- 
ords for  Seventeenth  Century,  Copies  in  Va.  State  Library,  originals  at 
Virginia  Courthouses;  Fitzhugh,  William:  Letters  of  (Va.  Hist.  Soc.  Mss. 
Coll.);  Ford,  Peter:  Collection  of  Historical  Documents  Relating  to  Colon- 


-  'C 

<  g 

>  <: 

8"  -s 

a  « 

P  VI 

C3  P 


IS. 


P 

P     43 

a  a 


o 


FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.          73 

tes  of  North  America  (4  Vols.,  Washington,  D.  C.,  1836-46);  General 
Court  of  Virginia,  Mss.  Records  of  1670-76  (Va.  Hist.  Soc.  Mss.  Coll.); 
Godwyn,  Morgan:  Negro's  and  Indian's  Advocate  (London,  1680); 
Hamor,  Ralph:  True  Discourse;  Hartwell,  Chilton  and  Blair:  Present 
State  of  Virginia,  1696-7  (London,  1727);  Hellier,  Thomas:  Life  of  (Lon- 
don, 1680);  Hening,  Wm.  Waller:  Virginia  Statutes  at  Large  (Vols.  I.,  II., 
III.);  Hotten,  J.  C.:  Original  Lists  of  Emigrants  to  America,  1600-1700 
(New  York,  1874);  James,  E.  W.:  Lower  Norfolk  County  Antiquary;  Lud- 
well  Mss.  (Va.  Hist.  Soc.  Mss.  Coll.);  McDonald  Papers  (7  Vols.  Mss.  Va. 
State  Library);  Neill,  Rev.  E.  D. :  English  Colonization  of  America 
(London,  1871),  History  of  Virginia  Company  of  London,  1606-24 
(Albany,  N.  Y.,  1869),  Virginia  Carolorurn,  1625-85  (Albany,  1869), 
Virginia  Vetusta;  Percy,  George:  Discourse;  Randolph  Mss.  (Va. 
Hist.  Soc.  Mss.  Coll.);  Robinson,  Conway:  Transcripts  of  Miscel- 
laneous Mss.  (Va.  Hist.  Soc.  Mss.  Coll.);  Royal  Historical  Mss. 
Commission  Reports  (8  Vols.);  Sainsbury,  E.  Noel:  Abstracts  of  Records 
in  British  Public  Record  Office  relating  to  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century  (Va.  State  Library);  Smith,  Capt.  John:  Works  of  (edited  by 
Prof.  Arber,  Birmingham,  England,  1884);  Spelman,  Henry:  Relation 
of  Virginia;  Spottswood,  Gov.  Alexander:  Official  Letters  of  (Va.  Hist. 
Soc.  Pubs.);  Stith,  William.  History  of  Virginia  (Williamsburg,  Va., 
1747);  Strachey,  William:  Historie  of  Travaile  into  Virginie  Britannia; 
Virginia  Historical  Register  (6  Vols.,  Va.  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.);  Virginia 
Land  Patents,  1621-1700  (Va.  State  Capitol);  Virginia  Magazine  of  His- 
tory and  Biography  (Va.  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.);  William  and  Mary  College 
Quarterly  (Williamsburg,  Va.);  Winder  Papers  (2  Vols.,  Va.  State 
Library). 

PHILIP  ALEXANDER  BRUCE, 

Author  of  The  Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FEOM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH, 
1763-1776. 

The  French  and  Indian  War,  which  closed  the 
issue  as  to  whether  the  English,  French  or  Spanish 
should  dominate  this  continent,  opened  the  question 
as  to  whether  sovereignty  over  the  country  should 
be  British  or  American.  The  American  Devolution 
was  less  a  revolt  from  England  than  the  growth  of 
instinctive  forces  in  the  life  of  Anglo-Saxons  set- 


74  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

tied  in  the  western  wilderness.  In  that  creative  era 
there  culminated  three  tendencies  which  sprang 
naturally  out  of  the  conditions  of  colonial  life — 
democracy,  union  and  independence.  Hence  the 
significance  attaching  to  that  period  is  the  genesis 
of  ideas,  the  progress  of  social  forces,  and  the  subtle 
motives  that  weave  institutions.  It  was,  in  fact,  an 
evolution  rather  than  a  revolution. 

Virginia  gladly  acknowledged  itself  the  child  of 
England,  but  a  child  having  substantive  aims,  and 
claiming  as  an  heir  the  great  "moral  discoveries  of 
habeas  corpus  and  trial  by  jury,  of  a  representative 
government  and  a  free  press."  The  Virginia  As- 
sembly as  early  as  1624  declared  that  it  had  the 
right  "to  lay  taxes  and  impositions,  and  none 
other."  "When,  therefore,  the  intention  of  the  Brit- 
ish Ministry  as  to  the  Stamp  Act  became  known  in 
1764,  the  Virginia  Burgesses  promptly  forwarded 
their  remonstrance. 

Despite  colonial  protests,  the  Stamp  Act  was  to 
go  into  effect  Nov.  1,  1765.  Acquiescence  seemed 
the  only  course,  when  Patrick  Henry  entered  the 
House  of  Burgesses  on  May  1  of  that  year.  He  had 
sprung  into  prominence  in  the  famous  Parsons' 
Cause,  by  upholding  with  rare  eloquence  the  right 
of  Virginia  to  make  her  own  laws  without  the  in- 
tervention of  the  king's  veto.  Nine  days  after 
Henry  took  his  seat  in  the  Assembly  he  wrote  on  the 
fly-leaf  of  an  old  copy  of  Coke  Upon  Littleton  a 
series  of  resolutions  against  the  Stamp  Act,  which 
he  presented  to  the  House,  and  thereby  "gave  the 
first  impulse  to  the  ball  of  the  revolution."  Jeffer- 
son, then  a  student,  witnessed  "the  bloody  debate," 
and  heard  Peyton  Randolph  exclaim  after  the  count, 
"By  God,  I  would  have  given  five  hundred  guineas 
for  a  single  vote!"  Another  negative  vote  would 
have  killed  the  measure.  Governor  Fauquier,  af- 


FEOM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.          75 

frighted,  at  once  dissolved  the  Assembly.  But  the 
work  had  been  done.  Virginia's  voice  echoed  in  the 
New  York  Congress,  and  the  Stamp  Act  was  re- 
pealed. 

The  crisis  seemed  past.  Not  so,  for  Townshend, 
in  1767,  aroused  anew  the  colonies  by  import  duties 
upon  glass  and  tea.  In  the  choice  of  the  courtly 
Botetourt  as  a  successor  to  Fauquier,  the  Ministry 
hoped  to  detach  Virginia  from  the  side  of  Massa- 
chusetts. The  Burgesses,  however,  would  not  de- 
sert New  England  at  that  critical  moment.  They 
embodied,  in  1769,  their  patriotic  views  in  energetic 
resolves,  while  sitting  behind  closed  doors.  Hardly 
had  the  vote  been  taken  when  the  governor  abruptly 
summoned  them  to  meet  him  in  the  council  cham- 
ber. With  flushed  face  he  angrily  dissolved  them. 
Turned  out  of  the  capitol,  the  representatives  with 
one  accord  went  to  the  Raleigh  Tavern  and  agreed 
to  import  no  more  goods  from  Britain.  It  is 
worthy  of  record  that  at  this  session  of  the  Assem- 
bly Thomas  Jefferson  urged  a  bill  allowing  owners 
to  manumit  their  slaves.  Of  like  import  was  the 
attempt  of  the  Burgesses,  in  1772,  to  put  an  end  to 
the  iniquitous  slave  trade.  The  king  denied  this  ap- 
peal and  thereby  laid  himself  open  to  Jefferson's 
fierce  indictment  on  that  score  in  his  draft  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

After  1769  there  was  a  lull  in  Virginia,  in  spite 
of  the  unrepealed  tax  on  tea.  Upon  the  death  of  the 
genial  Botetourt,  the  suspicious  Dunmore  took  his 
place.  Violence,  however,  manifested  itself  in  other 
provinces.  The  Boston  Massacre,  the  burning  of  the 
Gaspee  in  Ehode  Island,  and  the  counter  coercive 
measures  of  the  British  Ministry,  kept  alive  the 
great  debate.  To  secure  unity,  the  Assembly,  in  1773, 
devised  committees  of  correspondence  to  act  as  a 
nervous  system  for  the  colonial  cause. 


76  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Virginia's  Opposition  to  Boston  Port  Bill. 

Throughout  the  events  that  led  up  to  the  Eevolu- 
tion,  it  seemed  ordained  that  Massachusetts  was  to 
suffer  and  Virginia  to  sympathize.  Until  the  out- 
break of  actual  hostilities  scarcely  anything  of  mo- 
ment occurred  on  the  soil  of  Virginia  to  incite  her 
sons  to  champion  the  cause  of  freedom.  Indeed, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  controversy  between  the 
colonies  and  the  mother  country,  the  British  Min- 
istry seemed  to  have  avoided  any  special  cause  of 
irritation  to  the  people  of  the  Old  Dominion.  The 
part,  therefore,  which  Virginia  took  in  the  events  of 
those  days  must  be  attributed  to  her  devotion  to  the 
principles  of  liberty,  to  her  interest  in  the  common 
cause  of  the  colonies,  and  particularly  to  her  sym- 
pathy with  Massachusetts  in  the  suffering  which 
that  province  was  called  upon  to  endure.  If  we  lose 
sight  of  these  motives  as  the  springs  of  Virginia's 
conduct  in  that  struggle,  we  shall  be  unable  to  appre- 
ciate either  the  nobility  of  her  spirit  or  the  wisdom 
and  energy  which  marked  her  initiative. 

The  Port  Bill,  which  closed  the  harbor  of  Boston 
as  a  retaliation  for  the  famous  Tea-party,  reached 
Boston  on  May  10,  1774,  the  day  of  the  accession 
of  Louis  XVI.  Three  days  later  the  Bay  patriots 
drafted  a  circular-letter,  appealing  to  the  colonists 
for  united  support  and  urging  the  cessation  of  all 
trade  with  Great  Britain.  One  writing  from  the 
doomed  city  in  New  England  on  May  29,  just  before 
the  Port  Bill  was  to  go  into  effect,  sketches  for  us 
the  situation  there:  "Preparations  are  now  making 
for  blocking  up  this  harbor,  and  affairs  at  present 
bear  a  gloomy  aspect  in  this  metropolis.  However, 
we  are  in  good  spirits,  and  if  the  other  colonists 
will  but  stand  by  us  we  doubt  not  of  doing  well. 
Nothing  but  an  union  can  be  the  salvation  of 
America." 


FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.         77 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  very  Sunday  on  which 
the  writer  was  penning  these  words  to  his  friend, 
Boston's  circular-letter  arrived  by  special  messen- 
ger in  the  quiet  Virginia  capital  at  Williamsburg, 
causing  hurried  consultations  among  the  score  or 
more  members  of  the  General  Assembly  that  still 
lingered  in  town.  On  the  previous  Thursday  the 
House  of  Burgesses  had  been  abruptly  dissolved  by 
the  irate  governor  on  account  of  an  active  expres- 
sion of  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  Massachusetts. 
The  reply  to  Boston's  proposal  to  break  off  all 
trade  relations  with  Britain  seemed  too  grave  a 
step  for  the  Virginia  Committee  of  Correspondence, 
instituted  the  previous  year,  to  take.  Accordingly, 
at  a  meeting  on  the  following  morning,  at  which  all 
the  twenty-five  remaining  ex-Burgesses  were  pres- 
ent, it  was  decided  to  ask  the  counties  to  appoint 
deputies  to  a  convention  which  should  consider  the 
question  of  the  cessation  of  all  trade  with  Great 
Britain  and  which  should  select  delegates  to  a  pro- 
posed Congress  of  the  American  colonies.  The 
Revolution  in  Virginia  had  begun;  a  body,  deriving 
its  mandates  not  from  the  Crown  but  from  the 
people  of  the  colonies,  had  been  called  into  existence, 
and  this  democratic  legislature  was  gradually  to 
draw  to  itself  all  the  governmental  functions  of  the 
province.  Boston's  appeal  for  support  was  thus 
referred  by  the  Committee  of  Correspondence  in 
Virginia  to  the  representatives  of  the  sovereign 
people,  whom  royal  writs  did  not  summon  nor  royal 
governors  dissolve.  This  call  for  the  first  Virginia 
convention,  the  original  of  which  is  in  the  State 
Library  at  Richmond,  was  evidently  written  by  Pey- 
ton Randolph,  the  recent  Speaker  of  the  Burgesses, 
whose  signature  stands  first  in  the  list  of  signers. 
There  follow  the  names  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  Henry, 
Lee,  George  Washington,  etc. 


78  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

June  the  first,  the  very  day  on  which  the  Boston 
Port  Bill  was  to  go  into  effect,  had,  by  appointment 
of  the  Virginia  Burgesses,  been  set  apart  "as  a  day 
of  fasting,  humiliation  and  prayer  to  avert  the 
heavy  calamity  which  threatened  destruction  to 
their  civil  rights" — the  precise  resolution  that 
brought  Lord  Dunmore's  wrath  down  upon  their 
heads.  Food  was  not  tasted  from  the  rising  to  the 
setting  of  the  sun  throughout  the  colony,  and  solemn 
services  were  held  in  the  local  churches.  George 
Mason,  in  writing  from  Williamsburg  to  a  neighbor, 
mentions  the  day  of  fasting  appointed  and  adds, 
"please  tell  my  dear  little  family  that  I  charge  them 
to  pay  strict  attention  to  it,  and  that  I  desire  my 
three  eldest  sons  and  my  two  eldest  daughters  may 
attend  church  in  mourning."  At  Bruton  Church 
in  the  ancient  capital  Rev.  Mr.  Price,  before  whom 
sat  Washington  and  his  fellow  Burgesses,  took  as 
the  text  of  his  discourse  the  words :  "Be  strong  and 
of  good  courage ;  fear  not  nor  be  afraid  of  them,  for 
the  Lord  thy  God,  He  it  is  that  doth  go  with  thee. 
He  will  not  fail  thee  nor  forsake  thee" — admirably 
chosen  as  suggesting  divine  succor  and  ultimate 
success.  "The  people,"  wrote  Jefferson,  "met  gen- 
erally with  anxiety  and  alarm  in  their  countenances, 
and  the  effect  of  the  day  through  the  whole  colony 
was  like  a  shock  of  electricity,  arousing  every  man 
and  placing  him  erect  and  solidly  on  his  centre." 

The  First  Convention,   1774. 

During  the  summer  of  1774  the  Revolution  was 
organizing  itself  throughout  the  province  by  the 
appointment  of  local  committees  of  correspondence 
as  a  means  of  promoting  union  and  diffusing  in- 
formation, and  by  spirited  county  mass-meetings 
called  to  consider  the  crisis  of  public  affairs  and  to 
elect  delegates  to  the  Virginia  convention,  in  which 


FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.          79 

the  Burgesses  were  in  general  empowered  to  act  as 
representatives  of  the  people. 

All  eyes  now  turned  to  the  convention  which  was 
to  meet  at  the  capital  on  August  1,  just  eleven  days 
previous  to  the  time  set  by  Lord  Dunmore  for  the 
session  of  the  General  Assembly.  The  sinister  gov- 
ernor, by  way  of  avoiding  any  pretext  for  the  gath- 
ering of  the  people's  representatives,  began  a  series 
of  six  prorogations  of  the  legislature,  hoping  that 
meantime  patriotic  feeling  would  subside.  His 
proclamation  to  that  effect  stands  on  the  page  of 
the  yellowed  Journal  just  opposite  to  the  record  of 
the  impetuous  words  with  which  he  dissolved  the 
May  Assembly.  Little  did  Lord  Dunmore  suspect 
that  his  act  on  that  occasion  virtually  closed  the 
labors  of  a  legislature  that  dated  from  1619. 

The  first  Virginia  convention  met  at  Williams- 
burg  on  Aug.  1,  1774,  and  remained  in  session  six 
days.  Peyton  Eandolph  was  made  president.  In 
support  of  Boston  it  was  unanimously  .agreed  that 
after  November  1  following,  no  goods  except  medi- 
cines should  be  imported  from  Great  Britain;  that 
the  Virginians  would  neither  import  nor  purchase 
slaves  imported,  after  that  date,  from  any  place 
whatsoever;  and  that,  unless  American  grievances 
were  redressed  by  Aug.  10,  1775,  they  would  stop  all 
exports  of  their  product  to  the  British  Isles.  Dele- 
gates were  chosen  to  represent  Virginia  in  a  gen- 
eral Congress  of  the  colonies.  Provision  was  made 
for  the  future  sessions  of  the  convention,  should  the 
course  of  affairs  demand.  The  spirit  of  the  planters 
voiced  itself  in  the  words  of  Washington:  "I  will 
raise  one  thousand  men,  subsist  them  at  my  own 
expense,  and  march  myself  at  their  head  for  the 
relief  of  Boston." 

Following  the  session  of  the  first  Continental 
Congress  which  met  in  Philadelphia  on  Sept.  5, 1774, 


80  THE  HISTOKY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

local  military  companies  were  raised  in  various 
parts  of  Virginia  and  steps  were  taken  to  arm  and 
provision  them.  Events  in  Boston  hastened  the 
pace  of  the  patriots,  while  Parliament,  in  January, 
1775,  declared  Massachusetts  in  a  state  of  rebellion 
and  interdicted  all  trade  on  the  part  of  the  resisting 
colonies  with  Britain  and  the  West  Indies. 

The  Second  Convention,  1775. 

It  was  under  such  circumstances  that  the  second 
Virginia  convention  was  held  at  Eichmond  on  March 
20,  1775.  It  sat  in  St.  John's  church,  which  crowns 
an  eminence  overlooking  the  valley  of  the  James. 
The  historic  building  stands  to-day  amid  a  beautiful 
grove  under  whose  shade  sleep  the  village  fathers. 
A  hundred  and  nineteen  delegates  were  present  and 
remained  in  session  for  one  week.  A  cleavage  in 
parties  soon  appeared.  The  conservative  members 
brought  forward  a  conciliatory  resolution,  express- 
ing a  desire  "to  see  a  speedy  return  to  those  halcyon 
days  when  we  lived  a  free  and  happy  people"  under 
British  rule. 

There  were,  however,  some  men  in  the  convention 
who  favored  action  on  the  part  of  the  colony.  See- 
ing no  reason  to  put  their  trust  in  papers  addressed 
to  King  and  Parliament — were  not  the  royal  waste- 
baskets  full  of  these? — they  began  to  rely  on  their 
muskets  as  the  means  of  freedom.  Were  not  the 
Virginian  youth  from  sea  to  mountains  already  on 
the  drill-field,  but  without  authoritative  organiza- 
tion? Did  not  a  state  of  war  then  exist  in  Massa- 
chusetts? Moved  by  such  considerations,  Patrick 
Henry  sprang  to  his  feet  and  offered  a  barbed  reso- 
lution to  the  effect  "that  this  colony  be  immediately 
put  into  a  state  of  defense."  The  scene  that  fol- 
lowed this  proposal  was  a  repetition  of  that  which 
the  House  of  Burgesses  had  witnessed  ten  years  be- 


FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.         81 

fore  in  the  fiery  protest  against  the  Stamp  Act,  whe& 
Patrick  Henry,  by  eloquence  as  natural  as  it  was 
overwhelming,  carried  all  before  him.  Bland,  Nich- 
olas, Harrison  and  Pendleton  fought  the  martial 
resolution,  while  Richard  Henry  Lee  and  Thomas 
Jefferson  seconded  the  impassioned  words  of  the 
son  of  Hanover.  The  proposition  to  arm  the  colony 
was  carried,  and  the  committee,  including  Patrick 
Henry,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Benjamin  Harrison, 
George  Washington  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  at  once 
formulated  plans  for  executing  it.  Companies  of 
infantry  and  horse  were  soon  marshalled  in  the 
various  counties.  Trade  was  stagnant ;  government 
was  practically  suspended,  and  the  courts  closed. 
For  instance,  Patrick  Henry's  fee-books  show  that 
hi  1765  he  charged  555  fees,  and  in  1774  none. 

The  convention  appointed  the  same  delegates  as 
in  the  previous  year  to  represent  Virginia  in  the 
Continental  Congress,  adding  the  name  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  as  an  alternate  in  case  Peyton  Randolph 
should  be  unable  to  attend.  It  took  steps  for  pro- 
moting woolen,  cotton  and  linen  manufactures,  salt 
works  and  the  making  of  gunpowder,  steel  and 
paper.  The  delegates  concluded  that  their  labors 
must  be  submitted  to  the  approval  of  the  people; 
that  future  conventions  would  be  necessary;  and 
that  delegates  thereto  should  be  elected  for  one  year. 
Thus  a  body,  which  was  hastily  summoned  to  give 
advice  on  a  knotty  question  proposed  by  Boston, 
had  largely  assumed  the  direction  of  affairs  in  Vir- 
ginia. It  is  easy  at  this  time  to  observe  the  parts 
of  the  patriot  government  taking  shape;  first,  a 
committee  of  correspondence  with  advisory  powers 
in  all  questions  touching  the  patriot  cause ;  secondly, 
similar  committees  in  the  counties  calling  forth  mili- 
tary companies;  thirdly,  a  representative  body,  at 
present  only  consultative,  but  soon  to  become  legis- 

Vol.  1— «. 


82  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

lative;  fourthly,  a  militia  made  up  of  men  trained 
to  the  use  of  the  musket  and  pulsing  with  patriotism. 
The  Virginians  in  fashioning  these  democratic  in- 
stitutions showed  how  well  they  had  profited  by 
their  long  political  experience.  Needless  to  say, 
Lord  Dunmore  growled  his  dissent  at  such  patriot 
proceedings  by  a  public  proclamation,  which  went 
unheeded. 

While  the  sturdy  New  Englanders  were  burying 
the  farmers  who  met  death  on  the  Lexington  Green, 
an  act  of  Lord  Dunmore  in  removing  some  ammuni- 
tion from  the  "Powderhorn"  to  a  British  man-of- 
war  seemed,  for  the  moment,  to  threaten  bloodshed 
in  Virginia.  Patrick  Henry  headed  a  movement  of 
troops  against  Williamsburg.  Dunmore  became 
alarmed,  fortified  the  palace,  summoned  marines 
from  the  Fowey,  sent  his  wife  and  children  aboard 
this  ship  lying  at  York,  and  drew  a  full  breath  only 
after  he  had  learned  that  Henry  had  turned  back  at 
Doncastle's  ordinary  upon  receiving  payment  for 
the  powder.  The  governor's  threat  that  if  injury 
were  offered  to  him  or  his  he  would  free  the  slaves 
and  burn  the  town,  greatly  embittered  the  feeling  of 
the  people  against  him. 

The  Last  House  of  Burgesses. 

After  repeated  prorogations  of  the  General  As- 
sembly Dunmore  summoned  it  to  meet  on  the  first 
day  of  June,  1775,  so  as  to  receive  Lord  North's 
"olive  branch."  In  order  to  preside  over  the  House 
of  Burgesses,  Peyton  Eandolph  left  the  session  of 
the  second  Congress  in  Philadelphia  at  a  time  when 
the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  the  capture  of 
Ticonderoga,  the  investment  of  Boston  by  a  provin- 
cial army,  and  the  arrival  of  large  bodies  of  fresh 
British  troops  at  New  York  and  Boston  had  swept 
the  public  mind  toward  the  precipice  of  revolution. 


FEOM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.          83 

Such  was  the  enthusiasm  in  his  home  town  for  the 
Speaker,  who  had  been  twice  honored  with  the  presi- 
dency of  the  general  Congress,  that  companies  of 
horse  and  foot  met  him  on  his  approach  to  Williams- 
burg  and  escorted  him  into  the  city.  When  the 
Burgesses  assembled  on  that  June  morning,  it  was 
noted  by  Randolph  that  many  of  them  were  habited 
in  hunting  shirts  and  armed  with  rifles.  This  as- 
sembly marked  the  last  rehearsal  of  royalty  in  Vir- 
ginia. Following  the  report  of  a  committee  that 
Dunmore  had  declared  his  purpose  to  raise,  free 
and  arm  the  slaves,  it  was  enacted  that  the  import 
of  slaves  from  the  West  Indies  be  checked  by  a  spe- 
cific duty  of  five  pounds  on  the  head,  to  which  meas- 
ure the  governor  refused  his  assent.  "The  last  ex- 
ercise of  the  veto  power  by  the  King's  representa- 
tive in  Virginia  was  for  the  protection  of  the  slave 
trade." 

Consideration  of  Lord  North's  conciliatory  prop- 
osition was  interrupted  by  an  untoward  incident. 
The  people  were  uneasy  lest  the  governor  should 
remove  the  remaining  guns  from  the  "Powder- 
horn."  When,  through  curiosity,  a  Burgess  and 
two  other  men  sought  an  entrance  into  the  arsenal, 
three  guns  went  off  automatically  upon  the  opening 
of  the  door,  as  had  been  deliberately  planned.  The 
men  were  all  wounded;  excitement  ran  high;  the 
governor,  upon  being  questioned,  threw  the  blame 
upon  his  servants,  who  declared  to  his  face  that  it 
had  been  done  by  his  orders.  Stricken  with  guilt 
and  fear,  Lord  Dunmore  with  his  family  fled  on 
June  7  to  the  Fowey,  anchored  at  York.  From  the 
cabin  of  this  man-of-war  he  sent  repeated  communi- 
cations to  the  legislature  at  Williamsburg,  twelve 
miles  away;  and  finally,  as  this  method  proved 
tedious,  he  requested  the  House  to  meet  him  on  ship- 
board— an  invitation  which  the  planters  were  in  no 


84  THE  HISTOKY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

way  minded  to  accept.  The  Fowney  sailing  up  the 
Thames  with  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses 
aboard  would  have  been  a  sight  to  thrill  the  heart  of 
King  George.  Jefferson  was  called  upon  to  draft 
the  answer  to  Lord  North's  proposal,  which  pur- 
posed to  divide  the  colonies  by  getting  them  to  treat 
separately  on  conciliatory  terms.  The  import  of  the 
reply  to  the  King  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  this 
sentence:  "We  consider  ourselves  as  bound  in 
honor  as  well  as  interest  to  share  one  general  fate 
with  our  sister  colonies,  and  should  hold  ourselves 
base  deserters  of  that  union  to  which  we  have  ac- 
ceded were  we  to  agree  on  any  measures  distinct 
and  apart  from  them."  Along  with  Jefferson's 
"Summary  of  Eights,"  which  was  intended  to  be 
presented  to  the  first  Virginia  convention,  this  paper 
marks  another  step  in  the  genesis  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  "In  my  life,"  said  Shelburne,  "I 
was  never  more  pleased  with  a  State  paper  than 
with  the  Assembly  of  Virginia's  discussion  of  Lord 
North's  proposition.  It  is  masterly."  With  Vir- 
ginia's reply  in  his  pocket,  Jefferson  hastened  to 
Philadelphia,  where  he  reported  its  passage  to  Con- 
gress. He  was  likewise  requested  by  that  body  to 
write  its  report  on  Lord  North's  terms,  and  did  so 
with  no  less  cogency. 

When  the  House  of  Burgesses  adjourned  on  June 
4,  1775,  it  completed  a  legislative  career  that  ex- 
tended over  156  years.  As  the  members  strolled 
out  of  the  House,  Eichard  Henry  Lee,  standing  with 
two  colleagues  on  the  portico  of  the  capitol,  in- 
scribed with  his  pencil  on  a  pillar  these  lines : 

"When  shall  we  three  meet  again 
In  thunder,  lightning  and  in  rain? 
When  the  hurlyburly's  done, 
When  the  battle's  lost  and  won." 

True,  there  were  three  other  attempts  to  hold 
sessions,  but  in  each  case  a  quorum  did  not  appear. 


FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.         85 

The  last  entry  on  the  manuscript  Journal  stands  thus : 
"Monday,  the  sixth  of  May,  16  George  III.,  1776. 
Several  members  met,  but  did  neither  proceed  to  busi- 
ness nor  adjourn  as  a  House  of  Burgesses.  Finis." 

The  Third  Convention,  1775. 

"While  the  House  of  Burgesses  must  decrease,  the 
convention  must  increase.  The  third  session  of  this 
Revolutionary  body  was  held  at  "Richmond  town" 
from  July  17  to  Aug.  26,  1775.  Fifteen  days  before 
the  planters  came  together  on  the  James,  George 
Washington  had  taken  command,  under  the  old  elm 
at  Cambridge,  of  the  American  armies.  Both  the 
circumstances  of  the  colony  and  the  movement  of 
thought  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  delegates  and 
forced  the  convention  to  assume  responsibilities 
undreamt  of  by  those  who  suggested  in  the  previous 
year  calling  it  for  the  first  time.  Lord  Dunmore 
had  not  only  abandoned  the  capital,  but  he  was  also 
threatening  to  make  war  on  the  colony.  The  royal 
government  was  dissolved.  The  convention  tried  to 
meet  this  new  turn  in  affairs.  No  longer  content 
with  resolutions  and  recommendations,  it  followed 
legislative  methods  and  gave  to  its  acts  the  forms 
of  law,  terming  them  ordinances. 

The  chief  measures  adopted  by  this  convention 
were  to  organize  the  forces  for  the  defense  of  the 
colony,  to  create  an  executive  to  act  during  the  re- 
cess of  the  convention,  to  raise  adequate  revenue  for 
the  provisional  government,  to  establish  executive 
county  committees,  to  regulate  the  election  of  dele- 
gates to  the  convention,  and  to  elect  new  repre* 
sentatives  to  Congress.  As  the  bare  enumeration 
shows,  these  were  tasks  of  no  little  difficulty,  and 
we  find  the  members  laboring  at  hours  early  and 
late  to  solve  them.  The  chaplain  was  "desired  to 
read  prayers  every  morning  at  eight  o'clock." 


86  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Patrick  Henry  was  made  colonel  of  the  first  regi- 
ment, and  as  such  acted  as  commander-in-chief  of 
the  Virginia  forces.  Fortunately  there  is  extant  the 
little  slip  of  paper  on  which  the  tellers  made  their 
report  to  the  convention  as  to  the  balloting  for  rep- 
resentatives in  Congress:  " Peyton  Eandolph  89, 
Eichard  Henry  Lee  88,  Thomas  Jefferson  85,  Ben- 
jamin Harrison  83,  Thomas  Nelson  66,  Eichard 
Bland  61,  George  Wythe  58,  Carter  Braxton  24, 
George  Washington  22,  George  Mason  19,  etc."  It 
will  be  seen  that  twenty-two  members  insisted  upon 
honoring  Washington  again  with  a  seat  in  Congress 
in  spite  of  his  military  commission. 

The  formation  of  a  temporary  executive  was  a 
subject  of  much  discussion.  There  existed  the  com- 
mittee of  correspondence,  originally  a  kind  of  bu- 
reau of  agitation.  Now,  however,  agitation  had 
done  its  perfect  work ;  war  was  at  hand.  It  seemed 
expedient,  therefore,  to  create  a  Committee  of 
Safety,  consisting  of  eleven  members,  of  whom  Ed- 
mund Pendleton  was  made  president.  This  com- 
mittee piloted  the  colony  during  the  trying  time  from 
Aug.  17,  1775,  until  July  5, 1776,  when  Patrick  Henry 
took  the  oath  as  governor  of  the  commonwealth 
of  Virginia.  During  this  era  of  political  excite- 
ment religious  dissent  increased  rapidly.  The  spirit 
of  patriotism  which  animated  all  classes  of  citizens 
finds  expression  in  a  petition  from  the  Baptists  to 
the  convention,  asking  for  four  of  their  brethren  to 
be  granted  liberty  of  preaching,  at  convenient 
times,  to  the  troops  of  that  religious  persuasion, 
without  molestation  or  abuse.  The  petition  was 
granted  "for  the  ease  of  such  scrupulous  con- 
sciences. '  * 

War  with  Dtmmore. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  summer  of  1775  the  fugi- 
tive governor  had  gathered  a  flotilla  in  the  Chesa- 


FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.         87 

peake,  troubling  merchant  ships  and  threatening  a 
descent  on  the  coast  towns.  In  October  one  of  his 
landing  parties  seized,  at  Norfolk,  and  carried  on 
shipboard  the  press  of  a  newspaper  imbued  with  the 
patriotic  sentiments  of  the  day.  On  this  press  was 
printed  Dunmore's  proclamation  of  November  7,  in 
which  he  proclaimed  martial  law,  declared  traitors 
all  persons  capable  of  bearing  arms  who  did  not 
resort  to  his  standard,  and  offered  freedom  to  "all 
indentured  servants,  negroes,  or  others  appertain- 
ing to  rebels."  A  messenger  was  even  despatched 
to  the  western  border  to  incite  the  savages  against 
the  Virginians.  The  war  in  Virginia  really  began 
at  Hampton,  at  the  very  place  where  occurred  the 
first  encounters  of  the  early  settlers  with  the  In- 
dians. In  a  severe  storm  in  September,  1775,  one 
of  Dunmore's  ships  was  beached  near  Hampton  and 
subsequently  captured  and  fired  by  the  inhabitants 
of  the  little  seaside  town.  To  avenge  this  act  the 
governor  blockaded  and  attempted  to  burn  the  vil- 
lage. The  British  assault  made  on  October  26  was 
bravely  repulsed  by  the  citizens,  reenforced  by  the 
Culpeper  riflemen.  On  December  8  the  battle  of 
Great  Bridge  took  place,  where  the  regulars  were 
again  routed,  losing  over  sixty  killed  and  wounded. 
On  Jan.  1,  1776,  after  a  severe  cannonade  from 
sixty  guns,  Dunmore  fired  Norfolk,  the  chief  town 
of  the  colony  with  a  population  of  6,000. 

Fourth.  Convention,  1775. 

The  fourth  Virginia  convention  was  sitting  al- 
most within  hearing  distance  of  the  cannon  at  the 
battle  of  Great  Bridge.  It  had  met  at  Richmond  on 
Dec.  1,  1775,  but,  after  organizing,  adjourned  to 
meet  at  Williamsburg.  The  chief  matters  that  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  this  convention  were  the  in- 
crease of  the  troops,  which  were  straightway 


8S  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

merged  into  the  continental  army;  the  establish- 
ment of  an  admiralty  court;  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  of  five  men  in  each  county  to  try  the 
causes  of  those  deemed  enemies  of  America;  the 
authorization  of  county  courts  to  elect  severally  a 
sheriff  for  one  year;  and  instruction  to  the  Virginia 
delegates  in  Congress  to  urge  the  opening  of  the 
ports  of  the  colonies  to  the  commerce  of  the  world, 
excepting  Britain  and  the  British  West  Indies. 

After  the  harrowing  assaults  of  Lord  Dunmore,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  the  demand  for  independence 
of  British  rule  echoed  in  every  quarter  of  Virginia. 
We  find,  accordingly,  during  that  spring,  the  several 
county  committees  instructing  their  delegates  "to 
cause  a  total  and  final  separation  from  Great  Britain 
to  take  place  as  soon  as  possible."  Meantime  the 
prime  question  in  the  mind  of  the  Virginian  states- 
men was  how  to  bridge  the  chasm  from  royalty 
to  republicanism,  from  colony  to  commonwealth. 
There  was  a  brisk  correspondence  between  the  lead- 
ing men  in  the  province  with  a  view  to  the  declara- 
tion of  independence  and  the  taking  up  of  govern- 
ment. 

The  Fifth  Convention,   1776 — Adoption  of  a  Constitution. 

The  fifth  convention  met  at  William  sburg  on  May 
6,  1776,  sixty  counties  and  corporations  being  rep- 
resented by  131  delegates.  Edmund  Pendleton  was 
elected  president.  The  three  constructive  measures 
which  it  formulated  were:  first,  the  instructions  to 
the  Virginia  delegates  in  Congress  to  propose  In- 
dependence of  Great  Britain;  second,  the  Bill  of 
Rights ;  and  third,  the  constitution  of  the  new  Com- 
monwealth. After  the  passage,  on  May  15,  of  the 
resolution  instructing  their  delegates  in  Congress 
to  propose  independence,  the  British  flag  on  the 
capitol  was  at  once  struck  and  the  colonial  colors 


FROM  COLONY  TO  COMMONWEALTH.          89 

hoisted  in  its  stead.    At  night  the  town  was  illumi- 
nated in  celebration  of  that  epochal  event. 

On  June  12  the  convention  adopted  the  Bill  of 
Rights.  This  summary  of  liberties,  at  once  so  com- 
prehensive and  concise,  we  owe  to  George  Mason, 
whose  original  draft  was  afterwards  presented  to 
the  state.  The  only  serious  amendment  made  to 
this  celebrated  paper  was  that  urged  by  the  youth- 
ful James  Madison,  substituting  religious  liberty 
for  toleration.  The  air  was  rife  with  political 
theories.  Seven  different  plans  of  government 
came  before  the  convention.  From  these,  guided  by 
political  sagacity  of  rare  order,  they  wrought  out  a 
republican  constitution  which,  though  conceived  in 
the  midst  of  war  and  framed  in  a  brief  space  of 
time,  met  admirably  the  needs  of  the  people  and 
presided  for  more  than  half  a  century  over  the 
rapidly  expanding  state.  The  constitution  was 
adopted  finally  on  June  29,  1776 — the  natal  day  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Burk,  John:  History  of  Virginia',  Chandler,  J.  A.  C.: 
Rerrresentation  in  Virginia',  Frothingham,  Richard:  The  Rise  of  the  Re- 
public; Gordon's  History  of  America]  Grigsby,  Hugh  Blair:  The  Virginia 
Convention  of  1776;  Henry,  William  Wirt:  Life  of  Patrick  Henry;  Hart. 
A.  B. :  Formation  of  the  Union;  Hening's  Virginia  Statutes  at  Large;  Ingle: 
Local  Institutions  in  Virginia;  James,  C.  F.:  History  of  the  Struggle  for 
Religious  Liberty  in  Virginia;  Johnson,  T.  C.:  Religious  Liberty  in  Vir- 
ginia; Rowland,  Kate  Mason:  Life  of  George  Mason;  Tyler,  Lyon  G.: 
Life  and  Times  of  the  Tylers;  Wilson,  Woodrow:  Life  of  George  Washing- 
ton ;  The  Works  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  John  Adams,  James  Madison,  etc. ; 
The  Journals  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses;  The  Journals  of  the 
Virginia  Conventions  of  the  Revolution;  Calendar  of  Virginia  State 
Papers;  The  files  of  the  Wittiamsburg  Gazette;  Manuscripts  in  Virginia 
State  Archives. 

S.  C.  MITCHELL, 

President  of  the  University  of  South  Carolina. 


90  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA, 

1776-1861. 

Virginia  Troops  in  the  Revolution. 

The  political  leadership  of  Virginia  during  the 
revolutionary  epoch  has  been  universally  recog- 
nized and  the  published  writings  of  her  statesmen 
have  placed  their  fame  beyond  the  reach  of  cavil  or 
detraction.  The  military  history  of  the  state  has,  on 
the  contrary,  been  sadly  neglected,  and  what  is  still 
worse  many  of  the  most  important  documentary 
sources  are  now  lost.  To  have  contributed  Washing- 
ton to  the  cause  of  independence  seemed  glory 
enough  for  one  state,  and  the  services  rendered  by 
the  Virginia  line  have  consequently  received  scant 
treatment  even  at  the  hands  of  the  state  historians. 

When  Virginia's  own  writers  have  neglected  the 
part  played  by  her  troops  in  the  Revolution,  it  is  not 
strange  that  others  have  disparaged  it.  It  is  fre- 
quently claimed  that  New  England  furnished  more 
troops  than  all  the  other  states  combined,  and  that 
Massachusetts  sent  to  the  front  nearly  double  the 
number  furnished  by  any  other  state.  By  merely 
adding  up  the  yearly  returns  of  the  continental  army 
as  given  by  General  Knox  in  a  report  prepared  for 
Congress  in  1790,  when  he  was  secretary  of  war,  the 
Massachusetts  historians  arrive  at  the  conclusion 
that  their  state  furnished  a  total  of  67,907  men  to 
the  continental  line  and  Virginia  26,672.  Knox  also 
gives  estimates  of  the  militia,  these  figures  being 
very  full  for  New  England  and  very  meagre  for  the 
South,  but  he  states  by  way  of  explanation  that  "in 
some  years  of  the  greatest  exertions  of  the  Southern 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.         91 

States  there  are  no  returns  whatever  of  the  militia 
employed."  Heitman,  in  his  Historical  Register  of 
the  Officers  of  the  Continental  Army,  after  a  careful 
study  of  the  subject,  places  the  number  of  Massa- 
chusetts militia  at  20,000  and  the  number  of  Vir- 
ginia militia  at  30,000.  Adding  together  Knox's  and 
Heitman 's  figures  it  would  appear  that  Massachu- 
setts furnished  87,907  men  during  the  Revolution, 
and  Virginia  56,672.  Next  to  Virginia  comes  Con- 
necticut with  40,939. 

But  a  careful  analysis  of  Knox's  figures  will  show 
that  they  are  subject  to  certain  corrections.  The 
16,444  men  credited  to  Massachusetts  in  1775  were 
not  regularly  organized  continentals,  but  militia  on 
continental  pay,  whose  terms  expired  in  December 
of  that  year.  The  13,372  men  credited  to  the  same 
state  for  1776  likewise  include  militia  on  continental 
pay,  whose  terms  expired  at  the  end  of  the  year. 
The  explanation  of  this  is  that  Massachusetts  was 
so  hard  pressed  during  the  first  and  second  years 
of  the  war  that  she  was  unable  to  pay  her  militia 
and  appealed  to  Congress  to  assume  the  burden. 
This  Congress  consented  to  do  and  large  sums  of 
money  were  forwarded  to  Washington's  headquar- 
ters to  be  paid  out  to  the  Massachusetts  militia  un- 
der his  direction.  Here  then  is  a  deduction  of  nearly 
30,000  to  be  made  from  the  Massachusetts  total  of 
continental  troops.  Another  point  to  be  noted  is 
that  Knox  takes  no  account  of  the  term  of  enlist- 
ment and  makes  no  effort  to  reduce  his  figures  to  a 
common  basis.  It  is  well  known  that  enlistments  in 
Massachusetts  were  for  short  periods,  while  enlist- 
ments in  Virginia  were  for  three  years  or  the  war. 
For  instance  the  3,732  continentals  credited  to 
Massachusetts  in  1781,  when  the  war  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  South,  were  enlisted,  according  to 
Knox's  report,  for  four  months  only.  When  we 


92  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIKGINIA. 

come  to  consider  the  terms  of  service  of  the  militia, 
an  examination  of  the  volumes  published  by  the  sec- 
retary of  the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  under 
the  title  of  Massachusetts  Soldiers  and  Sailors  of  the 
Revolutionary  War  shows  that  many  of  them  served 
for  very  short  periods.  Hundreds  of  men  listed  in 
these  volumes  served  in  reply  to  some  alarm  for 
from  one  to  thirty  days  and  saw  no  other  service, 
while  thousands  of  them  served  for  one,  two,  three 
or  four  months.  The  completeness  and  detail  of 
these  records  is  remarkable.  We  do  not  wish  to  dis- 
credit or  underrate  the  services  of  Massachusetts  to 
the  cause  of  independence,  which  were  very  great, 
particularly  in  the  early  years  of  the  war,  but  merely 
to  point  out  the  extravagance  of  many  of  the  claims 
advanced  by  her  historians.  These  claims  have  been 
so  often  repeated  that  they  have  almost  acquired  the 
force  of  truth.  After  all  the  real  interest  centres 
not  in  the  number  of  troops  furnished  by  a  state  but 
in  the  character  of  the  service  performed,  and  in  this 
regard  Virginia  yields  precedence  to  none.  Her 
troops  fought  over  a  wider  area  and  further  from 
home  than  those  of  any  other  state.  They  served  in 
every  part  of  the  country  from  Quebec  to  Savannah 
and  from  Boston  to  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes. 

The  fact  that  the  commander-in-chief  was  a  Vir- 
ginian was  a  serious  obstacle  to  the  advancement  of 
other  officers  from  that  state.  Three  of  the  major- 
generals  appointed  by  Congress,  however,  claimed 
Virginia  as  their  residence,  though  only  one  was  a 
native.  They  were  Charles  Lee  and  Horatio  Gates, 
former  British  army  officers  who  had  acquired  es- 
tates in  Berkeley  county  near  Leetown,  in  what  is 
now  Jefferson  county,  West  Virginia,  and  Adam 
Stephen,  of  the  same  county,  who  had  served  with 
distinction  in  the  Indian  wars.  By  a  strange  coinci- 
dence these  three  generals,  whose  homes  were  within 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.         93 

a  few  miles  of  one  another,  all  fell  into  disgrace. 
Lee  was  dismissed  for  his  conduct  at  Monmouth, 
Gates  was  suspended  after  his  defeat  at  Camden,  and 
Stephen  was  cashiered  for  drunkenness  and  blunder- 
ing at  the  battle  of  Germantown. 

But  the  names  of  the  brigadier-generals  of  Vir- 
ginia form  an  honor  roll  of  which  the  state  may  well 
feel  proud.  They  are  Daniel  Morgan,  who  led  the 
first  body  of  Southern  troops  to  join  Washington 
before  Boston,  fought  his  way  into  the  heart  of 
Quebec  only  to  be  captured  through  failure  of  the 
supporting  column,  twice  turned  the  tide  at  Sara- 
toga and  finally,  after  a  tardy  promotion  to  the  grade 
of  brigadier,  routed  the  dread  Tarleton  at  Cowpens 
in  one  of  the  most  brilliant  engagements  of  the  war ; 
Peter  Muhlenberg,  who  led  a  German  regiment  from 
the  valley  of  Virginia  to  the  relief  of  Charleston  in 
1776,  commanded  a  brigade  at  Brandywine,  German- 
town,  Monmouth,  Stony  Point  and  Yorktown ;  Hugh 
Mercer,  whose  brigade  formed  the  attacking  column 
at  Trenton  and  at  Princeton,  and  who  died  of  his 
wounds  a  few  days  later  lamented  by  the  entire 
army;  George  Weedon,  who  commanded  a  brigade 
at  Brandywine  and  at  Germantown ;  William  Wood- 
ford,  who  commanded  the  Virginia  militia  at  Great 
Bridge  and  led  a  Virginia  brigade  at  Brandywine, 
Germantown  and  Monmouth;  Charles  Scott,  who 
commanded  a  Virginia  regiment  at  Trenton  and  at 
Stony  Point  and  was  the  last  to  leave  the  field  at 
Monmouth  when  Charles  Lee  retreated;  Edward 
Stevens,  whose  regiment  checked  the  British  ad- 
vance at  Brandywine  and  who  served  with  distinc- 
tion at  Germantown  and  at  Guilford  Court  House; 
Eobert  Lawson,  who  commanded  a  brigade  of  Vir- 
ginia militia  at  Guilford  Court  House;  William 
Campbell,  who  led  a  regiment  of  400  Virginians  to 
King's  Mountain  and  was  chosen  by  the  other  offi- 


94  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

cers  to  lead  in  that  fight ;  Gov.  Thomas  Nelson,  who 
commanded  the  Virginia  militia  in  the  Yorktown 
campaign,  and  George  Rogers  Clark,  whose  conquest 
of  the  Northwest  will  be  described  later.  Morgan, 
Muhlenberg,  Mercer,  Weedon,  Woodford  and  Scott 
were  brigadiers  in  the  continental  line ;  Stevens  and 
Lawson  served  as  colonels  in  the  continental  line  and 
later  received  commissions  from  Virginia  as  briga- 
diers of  militia;  Campbell,  Nelson  and  Clark  also 
commanded  militia  or  volunteers. 

Not  less  distinguished,  though  of  lower  rank,  were 
Col.  Henry  Lee  ("Light-Horse  Harry"),  whose 
legion  rendered  such  brilliant  service  under  Wash- 
ington in  New  Jersey,  and  later  under  Greene  in  the 
Carolinas;  and  colonels  William  Washington, 
George  Baylor  and  Theodoric  Bland,  who  shed  new 
lustre  on  the  chivalry  of  Virginia,  while  Col.  Charles 
Harrison,  the  commander  of  the  First  Continental 
Artillery,  was  equally  conspicuous  in  another  arm 
of  the  service. 

The  first  year  of  the  war  was  fought  mainly  in 
New  England  by  New  England  militia,  who  were 
enlisted  at  first  to  serve  until  December,  1775,  when 
twenty-six  new  regiments  were  raised  to  serve  for 
one  year.  When  the  seat  of  the  war  was  transferred 
to  the  Hudson  many  of  these  troops  accompanied 
Washington  and  served  during  a  part  of  the  cam- 
paign in  New  Jersey,  but  very  few  of  them  would 
consent  to  reenlist  when  their  terms  expired.  Wash- 
ington was  reduced  to  great  straits  and  appealed  to 
Congress  and  the  states  for  troops  to  take  their 
place.  In  a  letter  to  the  president  of  Congress  Dec. 
24,  1776,  he  says:  "By  the  departure  of  these  regi- 
ments, I  shall  be  left  with  five  from  Virginia,  Small- 
wood's  from  Maryland,  a  small  part  of  Rawlins's 
(Maryland  and  Virginia  Rifles),  Hand's  from  Penn- 
sylvania, part  of  Ward's  from  Connecticut  and  the 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIEGINIA.         95 

German  Battalion,  amounting  in  the  whole  at  this 
time  from  fourteen  to  fifteen  hundred  effective 
men. ' '  In  the  battles  of  Trenton,  Princeton,  Brandy- 
wine,  Germantown  and  Monmouth,  Virginia  troops 
bore  the  brunt  of  the  fighting.  In  December,  1779, 
practically  the  whole  Virginia  line,  its  ranks  greatly 
depleted  by  hard  service  in  New  Jersey,  was  ordered 
to  South  Carolina  under  generals  Woodford  and 
Scott,  and  was  surrendered  to  the  British  by  the 
capitulation  of  Charleston,  May  12,  1780. 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  war  the  soil  of  Vir- 
ginia was  free  from  the  invader.  After  the  repulse 
of  the  British  at  Great  Bridge,  Dec.  9,  1775,  and  the 
destruction  of  Norfolk  by  Lord  Dunmore's  fleet 
three  weeks  later,  there  were  no  military  operations 
in  Virginia  for  several  years.  Patrick  Henry  was 
the  first  governor  of  the  commonwealth,  having  been 
elected  June  30,  1776,  by  the  convention  which 
framed  the  original  constitution.  He  filled  the  office 
ably  and  acceptably  for  three  terms  of  one  year  each. 
During  this  time  a  number  of  important  legal  re- 
forms were  enacted  by  the  legislature  under  the 
leadership  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  The  most  impor- 
tant were  the  act  abolishing  entails,  the  statute  of 
descents,  the  act  repealing  the  laws  on  which  the 
established  church  rested,  and  an  act  prohibiting  the 
further  importation  of  slaves.  At  the  same  time 
Jefferson  prepared  a  bill  providing  for  the  gradual 
emancipation  of  slaves  and  the  celebrated  statute  of 
relisrious  liberty.  The  former  was  never  enacted; 
the  latter  after  an  interval  of  several  years. 

Jefferson  succeeded  Henry  as  governor,  and  Ms 
two  terms  fell  in  what  was  for  Virginia  the  most 
stormv  period  of  the  war.  While  he  was  governor 
Sir  Henrv  Clinton  sent  three  expeditions  to  raid  and 
harry  the  coasts  and  rivers  of  Virginia,  Matthews 
and  Collier  in  1779,  Leslie  in  1780,  and  Arnold  and 


96  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Phillips  in  1781.  In  the  spring  of  1780  Washington 
sent  General  Muhlenberg  to  Virginia  to  take  charge 
of  the  defenses  of  the  state.  With  the  aid  of  a  few 
officers  of  the  continental  lines,  who  were  at  home 
on  furlough,  he  collected  and  organized  a  sufficient 
body  of  militia  to  lay  siege  to  Leslie  in  Portsmouth, 
but  through  the  failure  of  the  French  fleet  to  cooper- 
ate that  officer  made  his  escape  and  joined  Corn- 
wallis  at  Charleston.  Shortly  afterwards  Maj.-Gen. 
Baron  von  Steuben  was  sent  to  Virginia  and  Muhlen- 
berg became  second  in  command.  The  best  equipped 
troops  were  sent  to  join  Greene  in  the  Carolinas  and 
the  militia  and  volunteers  disbanded.  On  Jan.  2, 
1781,  Benedict  Arnold  landed  at  Portsmouth  and 
two  days  later  proceeded  up  the  James  to  Richmond. 
After  destroying  nearly  everything  of  value  he  fell 
back  down  the  river  to  Portsmouth,  where  he  was 
kept  closely  within  his  intrenchments  by  the  militia 
which  Muhlenberg  quickly  collected.  In  view  of  the 
helpless  state  of  Virginia,  Washington  dispatched 
Lafayette  to  its  aid  with  1,200  regulars  from  the 
main  army,  hoping,  through  the  cooperation  of  the 
French  fleet,  to  capture  Arnold.  Leaving  his  troops 
at  the  head  of  Elk  River,  Maryland,  Lafayette  ha- 
stened forward  to  Virginia.  On  March  19  he  ar- 
rived at  Muhlenberg 's  camp  near  Suffolk,  but  the 
next  day  the  British  fleet  of  Admiral  Arbuthnot, 
having  defeated  the  fleet  of  Destouches  off  the  capes, 
landed  2,000  men  at  Portsmouth  under  command  of 
Major-General  Phillips.  Advancing  up  the  James 
again  the  British  destroyed  a  large  quantity  of  to- 
bacco and  other  stores  at  Petersburg,  but  were  pre- 
vented from  taking  Richmond  by  the  timely  arrival 
of  Lafayette 's  force.  On  May  13, 1781,  General  Phil- 
lips died  at  Petersburg,  and  a  week  later  Cornwallis 
arrived  with  his  army  from  the  Carolinas  and  as- 
sumed direct  command,  soon  after  which  Arnold 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA,         97 

returned  to  New  York.  The  events  of  the  campaign 
that  followed,  ending  at  Yorktown  and  bringing  the 
war  to  a  close,  are  too  familiar  to  need  repetition 
here. 

Governor  Jefferson  was  severely  criticized  for  his 
management  of  affairs  during  Arnold's  invasion. 
He  had  to  abandon  Eichmond  and  adjourn  the  legis- 
lature to  Charlottesville,  where  he  barely  escaped 
capture  by  Tarleton's  cavalry  which  Cornwallis 
sent  there  for  that  purpose.  Jefferson  could  do  little 
or  nothing  without  the  cooperation  of  the  regular 
army,  and  Washington  advised  that  the  only  safety 
for  Virginia  lay  in  the  defense  of  the  Carolinas. 
Accepting  this  view  of  the  situation  Jefferson  ha- 
stened to  the  South  every  available  musket,  man, 
wagon  and  horse,  thus  leaving  Virginia  defenseless. 
Lincoln's  surrender  of  Charleston  and  Gate's  defeat 
at  Camden  were  appalling  disasters,  but  the  bril- 
liant strategy  of  Greene  saved  the  day  and  justified 
the  course  that  had  been  pursued. 

The  Virginia  Navy  of  the  Revolution. 

Lord  Dunmore's  raids  on  the  coasts  of  Virginia 
in  the  summer  and  fall  of  1775  led  the  provincial 
convention,  in  December,  to  instruct  the  committee 
of  safety  to  provide  and  equip  vessels  for  the  de- 
fense of  the  colony.  The  committee  purchased  five 
vessels  and  commissioned  a  number  of  officers,  the 
most  prominent  of  whom  were  captains  James  Bar- 
ron,  Richard  Barron,  Richard  Taylor,  Thomas  Lilly 
and  Edward  Travis.  In  May,  1776,  the  convention 
appointed  a  board  of  naval  commissioners  consist- 
ing of  five  persons.  During  the  next  two  years  ves- 
sels were  built  on  the  Eastern  Shore,  on  the  Poto- 
mac, Rappahannock,  Mattapony,  Chicahominy  and 
James,  and  at  Portsmouth,  Go  sport  and  South 
Quay.  A  rope-walk  was  established  by  the  state  at 

v»i.  1—7. 


98  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Warwick  on  the  James,  a  few  miles  below  Bich- 
mond;  four  naval  magazines  were  opened  at  points 
on  the  James,  York,  Bappahannock  and  Potomac; 
the  manufacture  of  sail-duck  begun,  and  a  foundry 
operated.  In  March,  1776,  John  Henry  Boucher,  who 
was  then  serving  in  the  Maryland  navy,  was  ap- 
pointed to  command  the  Potomac  fleet,  and  soon 
after  made  commodore  of  the  Virginia  navy.  He 
resigned  in  November,  and  in  April,  1777,  Walter 
Brooke  was  made  commodore  and  served  until 
September,  1778.  The  navy  seems  to  have  been 
practically  out  of  commission  for  the  next  year  or 
more,  but  on  the  transference  of  the  war  to  the 
South  it  was  reorganized,  and  in  July,  1780,  James 
Barren  was  appointed  commodore  and  served  until 
the  close  of  the  war. 

We  have  the  names  of  about  seventy  vessels  com- 
missioned by  the  state  during  the  course  of  the  war. 
Of  these  at  least  fifty  were  armed  and  equipped  as 
vessels  of  war ;  the  others  were  trading  vessels  serv- 
ing under  the  direction  of  the  navy  board  and  under 
the  immediate  charge  of  William  Aylett.  As  far  as 
numbers  go  Virginia  had  the  largest  navy  of  any  of 
the  states.  Massachusetts  came  next  with  sixteen 
ships.  The  energy  of  her  maritime  population  went 
out  mainly  into  privateering,  so  that  it  was  difficult 
to  get  enough  men  to  man  the  state  ships;  but  in 
Virginia  there  was  little  privateering.  The  main 
service  by  the  Virginia  navy  was  in  suppress- 
ing Tories  and  in  freeing  the  waters  of  the  Chesa- 
peake of  British  privateers,  but  some  of  the  Virginia 
vessels  went  as  far  as  the  West  Indies  and  took 
some  valuable  prizes  there.  Some  of  the  Virginia 
vessels  were  taken  at  sea  and  more  than  twenty  were 
taken  or  destroyed  by  Matthews  and  Collier  in  1779. 
When  Arnold  and  Phillips  invaded  the  state  in  1781 
only  twelve  vessels  of  the  state  navy  remained,  and 


GEORGE   WYTHE. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.         99 

these  were  too  poorly  manned  to  be  of  much  service. 
As  the  hostile  force  advanced  up  the  river  towards 
Richmond,  this  little  fleet  made  a  stand  at  Os- 
borne's,  supported  by  militia  on  the  shore.  The 
Virginians  were  soon  compelled  to  abandon  their 
ships.  Some  were  scuttled  or  fired  and  others  cap- 
tured. None  escaped.  Only  one  vessel  of  the  Vir- 
ginia navy  now  remained — the  Liberty.  According 
to  a  recent  authority,  "The  Liberty  saw  more  serv- 
ice than  any  other  state  or  continental  vessel  of  the 
Eevolution.  She  was  in  the  employ  of  Virginia 
from  1775  until  1787."* 

Conquest  and  Cession  of  the  Northwest  Territory. 

By  the  Quebec  Act  of  1774  the  territory  lying  be- 
tween the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  was  annexed 
to  the  province  of  Quebec,  and  soon  after  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Eevolution  Colonel  Hamilton,  the  Brit- 
ish commander  at  Detroit,  undertook  to  organize  the 
Indians  of  the  Northwest  for  an  attack  on  the  set- 
tlers south  and  east  of  the  Ohio  Eiver.  But  his 
plans  were  thwarted  by  the  foresight  of  a  young 
Virginian,  George  Eogers  Clark,  one  of  the  early 
settlers  in  Kentucky  who,  counting  on  the  support 
of  the  French  inhabitants,  was  convinced  that  with 
a  small  force  he  could  take  possession  of  this  ter- 
ritory. Late  in  the  autumn  of  1777  he  made  his 
way  back  to  Virginia  along  the  Wilderness  Eoad 
and  laid  his  plans  before  Governor  Henry.  As  it 
was  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  enterprise 
should  be  kept  secret,  the  governor  did  not  consult 
the  legislature,  but  after  conferring  with  Jefferson, 
Wythe  and  Madison  he  authorized  Clark  to  raise  a 
force  of  350  men  for  the  expedition.  Clark  imme- 
diately recrossed  the  mountains  and  began  collecting 


*Paullin:  The  Navy  of  the  American  Revolution,  417 


100  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

men  and  supplies  on  the  upper  Ohio,  nominally  for 
the  defense  of  Kentucky.  By  May,  1778,  he  had 
succeeded  with  difficulty  in  getting  together  180 
picked  riflemen,  a  flotilla  of  small  boats  and  a  few 
pieces  of  light  artillery.  With  these  he  proceeded 
down  the  Ohio  to  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi 
and  disembarked  in  what  is  now  southern  Illinois. 
Marching  his  force  over  the  prairie  to  Kaskaskia 
he  surprised  the  garrison  and  took  possession  of  the 
town  without  resistance.  With  the  aid  of  Father 
Gibault,  a  Catholic  priest,  he  succeeded  in  winning 
over  Cahokia  and  other  neighboring  villages. 

As  soon  as  Governor  Hamilton  heard  of  these 
events  he  marched  from  Detroit  with  a  motly  force 
composed  of  500  men,  regulars,  Tories  and  Indians, 
to  Vincennes  on  the  Wabash  and  garrisoned  that 
fort.  But  Clark  was  not  to  be  outdone.  Sending 
some  provisions  and  a  few  pieces  of  artillery  around 
by  the  Ohio  and  Wabash,  he  set  out  from  Kaskaskia 
in  the  dead  of  winter  with  130  men,  marched  for 
sixteen  days  in  the  face  of  apparently  insurmount- 
able difficulties  across  the  drowned  lands  of  Illinois, 
met  his  boats  just  in  time  to  save  his  party  from 
starvation  and  despair,  and  appeared  before  Vin- 
cennes to  the  utter  amazement  of  the  British  gar- 
rison. The  town  readily  submitted,  and  after  a 
siege  of  twenty  hours  Hamilton  surrendered  the 
fort  February  23.  The  Northwest  territory  was 
thus  secured  to  Virginia  and  organized  as  the 
"county"  of  Illinois. 

The  importance  of  this  brilliant  exploit  was  des- 
tined to  be  far  greater  than  even  Clark  foresaw,  for 
when  the  treaty  of  peace  was  being  negotiated  at 
Paris  in  1782  our  allies,  France  and  Spain,  were  both 
more  than  willing  to  sacrifice  our  interests  in  order 
to  keep  us  out  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  the 
western  boundary  of  the  United  States  would  un- 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.       101 

doubtedly  have  been  fixed  at  the  Alleghanies  instead 
of  the  Mississippi  but  for  the  fact  that  this  western 
region  was  actually  occupied  by  Virginians. 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution  the  boundaries  of 
Virginia  extended  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
Mississippi,  and  from  the  parallel  of  36°  30'  on  the 
south  to  the  Great  Lakes  on  the  north ;  but  the  vast 
extent  of  these  imperial  possessions  aroused  the 
jealousy  of  the  other  states  and  rival  claims  to  a 
part  of  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  River  were 
revived.  Virginia's  original  claim  to  this  region 
was  based  on  the  charter  of  1609,  which  conveyed 
all  the  lands  200  miles  north  and  200  miles  south  of 
Point  Comfort,  "up  into  the  land,  throughout  from 
sea  to  sea,  "West  and  Northwest."  The  later  grants 
to  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  as  described  in 
their  charters,  likewise  ran  west  to  the  Pacific,  the 
impression  of  that  day  being  that  the  continent  was 
no  broader  here  than  in  Mexico.  New  York,  as  suc- 
cessor to  the  rights  of  the  Iroquois,  asserted  a 
rather  shadowy  claim  to  this  territory,  whose  tribes 
had  formerly  been  subject  to  the  Six  Nations.  To 
her  original  claim  Virginia  added  the  stronger  claim 
of  conquest  and  possession.  The  little  states,  Rhode 
Island,  New  Jersey,  Delaware  and  Maryland,  which 
had  no  claims  to  western  lands,  were  strongly  op- 
posed to  recognizing  the  claims  of  the  larger  states. 
Maryland  first  proposed  the  cession  of  all  western 
lands  to  the  Union,  and  later  declared  that  she 
would  not  ratify  the  Articles  of  Confederation  until 
she  should  receive  some  assurance  that  the  states 
in  question  would  cede  their  claims.  In  February, 
1780,  New  York  decided  to  surrender  her  claims  to 
the  general  government,  not  a  very  great  sacrifice 
on  her  part,  and  a  little  later  Connecticut  offered  to 
cede  her  claims  with  the  exception  of  3,250,000  acres 
reserved  for  school  purposes.  This  arrangement 


102  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

was  not  approved  at  the  time,  but  was  finally 
agreed  to  in  1786.  In  January,  1781,  Virginia 
agreed  to  cede  her  lands  on  condition  of  being  guar- 
anteed in  her  possession  of  Kentucky,  but  three 
years  later  the  cession  was  made  without  this  pro- 
viso, and  a  few  weeks  later  Massachusetts  followed 
with  a  surrender  of  her  claims. 

In  1784  Jefferson  proposed  in  Congress  a  scheme 
for  the  government  of  the  Northwest  Territory 
which,  among  other  provisions,  excluded  slavery. 
Though  stricken  out  at  the  time,  this  provision  was 
later  embodied  along  with  other  ideas  of  Jefferson 
in  the  celebrated  ordinance  of  1787.  The  creation 
of  a  national  domain  was  a  mighty  stride  forward 
in  the  formation  of  a  permanent  union.  The  pos- 
session of  a  territory  of  its  own  outside  the  limits 
of  the  several  states  gave  the  government  something 
of  a  national  character,  and  was  destined  to  have 
far-reaching  influences  on  its  development. 

In  1791  Kentucky  was  organized  with  the  con- 
sent of  Virginia  as  a  separate  state,  and  the  bounds 
of  the  "Old  Dominion"  were  thus  reduced  to  the 
point  at  which  they  remained  until  1861. 

The  Adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

When  the  Articles  of  Confederation  had  proven 
inadequate  and  the  union  of  states  seemed  drifting 
toward  anarchy,  Virginia  took  the  first  step  in  the 
formation  of  a  new  government  by  inviting  the 
states  to  send  delegates  to  Annapolis  for  the  pur- 
pose of  conferring  additional  powers  on  Congress, 
and  when  the  Federal  convention  met  at  Phila- 
delphia in  May,  1787,  Washington  was  chosen  to 
preside  over  its  deliberations.  His  sound  sense, 
dignified  bearing  and  tactful  manner  contributed 
more  than  any  other  single  factor  towards  the  ulti- 
mate success  of  the  work.  The  leading  part  in  the 


JAMES  MADISON. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.       103 

proceedings  was  taken  by  another  son  of  Virginia, 
James  Madison,  who  became  known  as  the  '  *  Father 
of  the  Constitution."  He  was  the  author  of  the 
Virginia  plan  which  formed  the  basis  of  discussion 
and  entered  largely  into  the  new  constitution. 
Washington  laid  the  work  of  the  convention  before 
Congress,  accompanied  by  a  letter,  and  after  eight 
days  of  discussion  the  constitution  was  submitted 
to  the  states  for  ratification.  The  next  question 
was,  would  the  states  ratify!  Of  this  there  was 
grave  doubt. 

In  Virginia  Patrick  Henry  and  Richard  Henry 
Lee  had  opposed  the  whole  plan  of  a  Federal  con- 
vention and  had  refused  to  go  as  delegates,  while 
George  Mason  and  Edmund  Randolph  had  refused 
to  sign  the  constitution  after  it  was  drafted.  Dela- 
ware, Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Georgia,  Connecti- 
cut, Massachusetts,  Maryland  and  South  Carolina 
ratified  in  the  order  named  before  the  meeting  of  the 
Virginia  convention  June  2,  1788.  As  it  took  nine 
states  to  put  the  new  government  into  operation,  all 
eyes  were  now  turned  to  Virginia.  Patrick  Henry 
led  the  fight  against  the  constitution  and  brought 
to  bear  against  it  all  the  force  of  his  fiery  eloquence. 
He  was  ably  seconded  by  George  Mason  and  Wil- 
liam Grayson.  Madison,  meanwhile,  had  won  over  to 
his  side  Gov.  Edmund  Randolph,  and  Washington's 
influence,  though  he  did  not  attend  the  convention, 
carried  great  weight  with  the  members.  Madison 
was  aided  by  the  popular  eloquence  of  "  Light-Horse 
Harry"  Lee  and  the  forceful  arguments  of  John 
Marshall.  The  debate  finally  narrowed  itself  down 
to  the  question  whether  the  constitution  should  be 
ratified  as  it  stood  and  amendments  subsequently 
proposed,  or  whether  ratification  should  be  post- 
poned until  another  Federal  convention  could  con- 
vene and  make  the  desired  changes.  The  former 


104  THE  HISTOKY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

alternative  was  finally  adopted,  and  on  June  25  the 
constitution  was  ratified  by  a  vote  of  eighty-nine  to 
seventy-nine.  It  was  learned  later  that  New  Hamp- 
shire had  ratified  four  days  earlier,  making  the 
ninth  state,  but  the  action  of  Virginia  was  none  the 
less  decisive  for  it  turned  the  scale  in  New  York, 
which,  after  a  long  struggle,  followed  Virginia's 
example,  and  the  new  government  was  organized 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Ehode  Island  and 
North  Carolina  still  held  back.  Patrick  Henry's 
principal  objection  to  the  constitution  was  the  ab- 
sence of  a  bill  of  rights.  His  fierce  opposition  had 
its  effect,  and  in  ratifying  the  constitution  the  con- 
vention proposed  a  score  of  amendments  which,  to- 
gether with  those  proposed  by  other  states,  were 
finally  reduced  to  ten.  The  first  ten  amendments 
are  thus,  in  part  at  least,  Henry's  contribution  to 
the  constitution,  and  no  student  of  constitutional 
history  will  deny  that  he  was  right  in  insisting  on  a 
bill  of  rights. 

Resolutions  of  1798-1799. 

The  closing  years  of  the  century  were  marked  by 
the  bitterest  partisan  feeling.  During  the  admin- 
istration of  President  Adams,  while  relations  with 
France  were  strained  and  war  imminent,  the  Feder- 
alist majority  in  Congress  passed  the  alien  and 
sedition  acts,  the  first  empowering  the  President 
to  remove  objectionable  aliens  from  the  country, 
and  the  second  seriously  restricting  freedom  of 
speech  and  the  liberty  of  the  press.  The  intention 
of  the  acts  was  to  intimidate  the  Republicans  and 
suppress  certain  of  their  newspapers.  Jefferson's 
followers  were  greatly  incensed  and  at  once  took 
steps  to  counteract  the  effect  of  the  acts  and  to  se- 
cure their  repeal.  Jefferson  prepared  a  set  of  reso- 
lutions for  the  Kentucky  legislature  which  were 
introduced  by  John  Breckinridge  and  passed  Nov. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.       105 

10,  1798.  They  declared  that  the  alien  and  sedition 
acts  were  "void  and  of  no  force,"  and  appealed  to 
the  other  states  to  protest  and  to  take  steps  to 
secure  their  repeal  at  the  next  session  of  Congress. 
At  the  same  time  Madison  prepared  resolutions 
of  similar  purport  which  were  introduced  in  the 
Virginia  legislature  by  John  Taylor,  of  Caroline. 
They  declared  that  the  Federal  government  was  a 
compact,  that  the  powers  of  Congress  were  limited 
by  the  plain  sense  and  intention  of  the  instrument 
constituting  that  compact,  and  that  in  case  of  a  de- 
liberate, palpable  and  dangerous  exercise  of  other 
powers  not  granted,  the  states  had  the  right  and 
were  in  duty  bound  "to  interpose  for  arresting  the 
progress  of  the  evil,  and  for  maintaining  within 
their  respective  limits  the  authorities,  rights  and 
liberties  appertaining  to  them."  The  resolutions 
were  forwarded  to  the  governors  of  the  other  states, 
inviting  them  to  declare  the  said  acts  unconstitu- 
tional and  to  cooperate  with  Virginia  in  maintain- 
ing the  rights  of  the  states  unimpaired.  Answers 
decidedly  unfavorable,  some  of  them  strongly  con- 
demnatory, were  received  from  Delaware,  Rhode 
Island,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Connecticut, 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont.  This  threw  Vir- 
ginia on  the  defensive  and  precipitated  a  hot  dis- 
cussion between  the  two  political  parties  within  the 
state.  At  the  next  meeting  of  the  legislature  Madi- 
son presented  an  able  and  lucid  report  in  defense  of 
the  resolutions  of  the  previous  year.  The  '  *  Madison 
Report"  of  1799  was  widely  accepted  as  an  authori- 
tative exposition  by  the  "Father  of  the  Constitu- 
tion" of  the  doctrine  of  states'  rights.  In  the  ef- 
fort to  perpetuate  their  power  the  Federalists  had 
overstepped  themselves,  and  the  following  year  they 
were  swept  out  of  office  never  to  recover  control  of 
the  government. 


106  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Internal  Improvements  and  the  State  Debt. 
When  the  National  government  assumed  the  revo- 
lutionary debts  of  the  several  states  in  1790,  Vir- 
ginia had  already  extinguished  the  greater  part  of 
hers  and  hence  opposed  assumption.  Most  of  the 
states  remained  free  from  debt  until  the  period  of 
development  following  the  war  of  1812,  when  the 
demand  for  better  means  of  communication  led  to 
the  creation  of  public  debts  for  the  construction  of 
roads,  bridges  and  canals.  At  this  time  the  part  of 
Virginia  lying  east  of  the  Alleghanies  was  devoted 
largely  to  agriculture  and  grazing  with  but  few 
manufactures,  while  to  the  west,  in  the  counties 
now  embraced  within  the  state  of  West  Virginia, 
lay  vast  stores  of  minerals  and  timber  as  yet  inac- 
cessible. In  order  to  develop  these  resources  and 
bring  them  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  the  state 
undertook  the  construction  of  graded  roads,  bridges, 
canals  and,  later,  railroads,  extending  from  tide- 
water towards  the  Ohio  River.  Some  of  these  works 
were  constructed  on  state  account,  but  the  greater 
part  of  them  by  state  subscription  to  the  capital 
stock  of  incorporated  companies.  The  appropria- 
tions and  subscriptions  were  expended  under  the 
direction  and  supervision  of  a  board  of  public  works 
created  as  early  as  1816,  the  members  of  which  were 
elected  by  the  voters  of  the  state  at  large.  The 
expenditures  did  not  assume  very  large  proportions 
until  1837,  but  from  that  time  on  they  grew  at  a 
progressive  rate  until  1860.  The  total  sum  appro- 
priated for  internal  improvements  and  banks  was 
over  $40,000,000,  less  than  a  fourth  part  of  which 
had  been  liquidated  before  the  War  of  Secession. 
By  1850  the  state  debt  had  grown  to  about  $10,000r 
000,  and  by  1860  it  had  reached  the  sum  of  $33r 
000.000.  Of  this  amount  $4,761,564  had  been  in- 
curred for  roads,  turnpikes  and  bridges ;  $12,492,616 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.       107 

for  canals  and  river  improvements,  and  $15,440,910 
for  railroads.  Appropriations  for  works  of  internal 
improvement  were  almost  invariably  supported,  as 
the  legislative  records  show,  by  a  majority  of  the 
members  from  the  counties  west  of  the  Alleghanies, 
and  almost  invariably  opposed  by  a  majority  of  the 
members  from  the  eastern  counties.  Thus  Virginia 
entered  on  the  War  of  Secession  burdened  with  a 
heavy  debt,  which  was  soon  made  all  the  heavier  by 
the  separation  of  the  counties  in  whose  interests  and 
by  whose  votes  the  debt  was  created.* 

State  Sectionalism. 

The  diversity  of  interests  between  the  East  and 
the  West  was  responsible  for  the  early  development 
of  sectionalism  within  the  state.  The  constitution 
of  1776  continued  in  force  the  colonial  system  of 
representation  in  the  state  legislature,  which  was 
based  on  districts  and  not  on  population.  With  the 
development  of  the  western  counties  came  the  de- 
mand for  larger  representation  in  the  General  As- 
sembly and  the  extension  of  the  suffrage,  but  the 
en  stern  counties  resisted  every  attempt  to  deprive 
+>>em  of  the  political  ascendancy  they  had  inherited 
A-om  earlier  times.  From  1790  on  petitions  for  re- 
form were  presented  at  nearly  every  session  of  the 
IPOH Mature,  but  without  effect.  Finally,  in  1816,  a 
convention  of  prominent  men  from  the  western 
counties  met  at  Staunton  and  drew  up  a  memorial 
asking  the  legislature  to  submit  to  the  voters  the 
auestion  whether  or  not  a  convention  should  be 
called  to  equalize  representation  on  the  basis  of  the 
white  population.  The  organization  of  the  Senate 
was  especiallv  unfair.  The  western  section,  with  a 
white  population  of  233,469,  had  only  four  senators, 

*For  most  of  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  creation  of  the  state  debt  the  writer  is  in- 
debted to  the  briefs  and  papers  prepared  by  Hon.  William  A.  Anderson  in  the  case  of 
Virginia  vs.  West  Virginia. 


108  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

while  the  eastern  counties,  with  a  white  population 
of  342,781,  had  twenty  senators.  As  a  result  of  the 
Staunton  memorial  the  House  of  Delegates  passed 
a  bill  in  favor  of  a  convention,  but  the  Senate  re- 
jected it.  In  order  to  allay  the  growing  discontent, 
however,  the  legislature  proceeded  to  reorganize  the 
Senate,  giving  the  East  fifteen  and  the  West  nine 
senators. 

Finally,  in  December,  1827,  the  legislature  agreed 
to  submit  the  question  of  calling  a  convention  to  the 
voters.  The  measure  was  carried  by  21,896  to 
16,637  votes.  The  reformers  wanted  the  delegates 
to  the  convention  assigned  on  a  basis  of  white  popu- 
lation, while  the  conservatives  demanded  a  mixed 
basis  of  white  population  and  taxation,  or  Federal 
numbers,  that  is,  white  population  and  three-fifths 
of  the  slaves.  After  long  discussion  the  House 
adopted  the  county  system  as  the  basis  of  organiza- 
tion, but  this  plan  was  rejected  by  the  Senate  and 
the  two  houses  finally  agreed  on  the  senatorial  dis- 
trict as  the  basis,  each  district  to  be  allowed  four 
delegates. 

The  convention  of  1829-30  was  remarkable  for  the 
number  of  able  men  who  sat  in  it,  among  them  ex- 
Presidents  Madison  and  Monroe,  and  Chief  Justice 
Marshall.  After  discussing  the  basis  of  repre- 
sentation for  weeks,  a  committee  was  finally  ap- 
pointed to  apportion  delegates  for  the  House  with- 
out adopting  any  basis.  As  a  result  the  Trans- 
Alleghany  district  was  given  thirty-one  delegates, 
the  Valley  twenty-five,  Piedmont  forty-two  and 
Tidewater  thirty-six. 

The  suffrage  question  was  the  next  most  impor- 
tant subject  before  this  convention.  The  constitu- 
tion of  1776  had  left  the  suffrage  where  it  was  fixed 
by  act  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  in  1736.  This  act 
vested  it  in  freeholders,  a  freehold  being  defined  as 


t 


JAMES  MONROE. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.       109 

100  acres  of  unimproved,  or  twenty-five  acres  of 
improved  land,  with  a  house  on  it,  or  a  house  and 
lot  in  town.  The  convention  of  1829-30  refused, 
after  a  stormy  debate,  to  consent  to  any  radical 
reform.  The  suffrage  was  extended  to  leaseholders 
and  taxpaying  housekeepers,  but  this  added  only  a 
few  thousand  to  the  electorate. 

The  West  was  by  no  means  satisfied,  but  remained 
quiet  for  a  while.  In  March,  1850,  the  General 
Assembly  finally  agreed  to  submit  the  question  of 
calling  another  convention  to  the  people,  determin- 
ing in  advance,  however,  that  the  convention  should 
be  organized  on  the  mixed  basis  (white  population 
and  taxation).  This  arrangement  gave  the  East 
seventy-six  delegates  and  the  West  fifty-nine,  an 
eastern  majority  of  seventeen;  whereas,  on  the 
white  basis,  the  East  would  have  had  sixty-one  and 
the  West  seventy-four,  a  western  majority  of  thir- 
teen. In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  East  controlled, 
the  convention  of  1850-51  is  known  as  the  reform 
convention.  The  apportionment  of  representatives 
for  the  House  was  finally  fixed  on  the  white  basis, 
giving  the  West  eighty-three  delegates  by  the  census 
of  1850,  and  the  East  sixty-nine,  while  the  Senate 
was  still  based  on  an  arbitrary  apportionment  of 
thirty  to  the  East  and  twenty  to  the  West.  The 
West  now  had  a  majority  of  four  on  joint  ballot. 
This  convention  also  extended  the  suffrage  to  every 
male  white  over  twenty-one  years  of  age  who  had 
resided  two  years  in  the  state  and  one  year  in  the 
district.  These  two  reforms,  together  with  the  pop- 
ular election  of  governor  and  judges,  changed  Vir- 
ginia from  an  aristocratic  government  into  one  of 
the  most  democratic  in  the  Union.* 


*For  th«  facts  stated  in  this  section  the  writer  is  largely  indebted  to  J.  A.  (J. 
Chandler's  two  monographs  on  Representation  in  Virginia  and  History  of  Suffrage 
in  Virginia  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  Historical  and  Political 
Science, 


110  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Slavery. 

We  have  already  referred  to  Jefferson's  desire 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  1776.  There  were  no 
stronger  abolitionists  in  America  at  that  time  than 
Jefferson,  George  Mason  and  St.  George  Tucker, 
while  Madison,  Washington  and  Henry,  though 
more  conservative,  earnestly  desired  to  see  slavery 
disappear.  The  disposal  of  the  free  negro — a  ques- 
tion of  little  consequence  at  the  North  where  the 
relative  proportion  of  blacks  was  small — retarded 
all  plans  for  general  emancipation  at  the  South,  and 
while  the  question  was  continually  discussed,  no 
action  was  taken. 

Nat  Turner's  insurrection  in  Southampton 
county  in  August,  1831,  in  which  sixty-one  persons, 
mostly  women  and  children,  were  barbarously  mur- 
dered, brought  the  question  very  forcibly  to  the  at- 
tention of  Virginia  statesmen.  On  Jan.  11,  1832, 
Thomas  Jefferson  Eandolph,  a  grandson  of  Jeffer- 
son, proposed  to  submit  to  the  voters  a  plan  for 
freeing  all  slaves  born  after  July  4,  1840,  the  males 
on  arriving  at  twenty-one  and  the  females  at 
eighteen,  and  for  removing  them  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  United  States.  This  motion  was  tabled  with- 
out a  recorded  vote.  The  general  question  contin- 
ued to  be  very  earnestly  debated,  however,  for  two 
weeks,  when  it  was  finally  disposed  of  on  a  test 
resolution  declaring  that  it  was  expedient  to  adopt 
some  legislative  enactments  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery.  This  motion  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of 
seventy-three  to  fifty-eight.  The  rise  and  growth  of 
Garrisonian  abolition  at  the  North  during  the  next 
twenty  years  threw  the  South  on  the  defensive,  and 
the  abolition  sentiment  in  Virginia  never  again  ac- 
quired the  force  that  it  had  in  1832.  It  is  estimated 
that  at  least  100,000  slaves  were  freed  by  Virginians 
between  the  Eevolution  and  the  War  of  Secession 


JOHN  TYLER. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  VIRGINIA.       Ill 

without   legal   compulsion,   as   against   a   total   of 
59,421  freed  in  the  entire  North  by  legislation. 

Secession. 

South  Carolina  passed  the  ordinance  of  secession 
Dec.  20,  1860,  and  was  followed  during  January  by 
Mississippi,  Florida,  Alabama,  Georgia  and  Louisi- 
ana, and  on  February  1  by  Texas.  The  Virginia 
legislature  was  convened  in  extra  session  by  Gov- 
ernor Letcher  January  7,  and  issued  an  invitation 
to  the  other  states  to  send  commissioners  to  a  con- 
vention in  Washington  "to  adjust  the  present  un- 
happy controversies."  But  the  time  for  compro- 
mises had  passed,  and  the  so-called  "peace  conven- 
tion" which  assembled  at  the  national  capital  Feb- 
ruary 4,  and  over  which  ex-President  Tyler  pre- 
sided, accomplished  nothing. 

On  the  day  that  the  peace  convention  assembled 
the  election  of  delegates  for  a  state  convention  was 
held  in  Virginia,  and  resulted  in  a  Union  victory. 
Of  the  152  delegates  chosen  30  were  classed  as  se- 
cessionists, 20  as  Douglas  men  and  102  as  Whigs, 
but  not  more  than  half  a  dozen  were  "actual  sub- 
missionists — that  is,  men  in  favor  of  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Union  under  any  and  all  circumstances." 
When  the  convention  met  it  soon  became  evident 
that,  while  a  large  majority  were  opposed  to  seces- 
sion as  matters  then  stood,  a  laree  maioritv  were 
also  opposed  to  coercion.  Lincoln's  inausrural  address 
was  a  great  blow  to  the  Union  men  of  Virsrinia,  and 
when  it  became  evident  that  he  did  not  intend  to 
evacuate  Fort  Sumter  the  secession  forces  gained 
strength  rapidly.  Still,  as  late  as  April  4  a  resolu- 
tion to  submit  an  ordinance  of  secession  to  the 
people  was  voted  down  in  fH«  rwnvp-nHrm  bv  80  to 
45.  On  April  15  President  Lincoln  issued  a  call  for 
volunteers  and  called  on  the  governor  of  each  state 


112  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

for  its  quota.  Virginia  was  thus  forced  to  choose 
between  joining  the  Confederacy  and  assisting  in 
its  coercion.  There  was  little  doubt  as  to  the  out- 
come. On  the  17th  the  convention  passed  the  ordi- 
nance of  secession  by  a  vote  of  88  to  55,  subject  to 
ratification  by  the  people  at  the  polls.  As  soon  as 
the  vote  was  announced  nine  delegates  changed  their 
votes  from  negative  to  affirmative  and  six  new  votes 
were  recorded,  so  that  the  final  vote  stood  103  to 
46.  The  scene  is  described  as  both  solemn  and 
affecting.  One  delegate,  while  speaking  against 
the  ordinance,  broke  down  in  incoherent  sobs;  an- 
other, who  voted  for  it,  wept  like  a  child.  The  senti- 
ment of  the  people  had  run  ahead  of  their  leaders. 
A.  H.  H.  Stuart,  who  had  strenuously  opposed  se- 
cession, now  issued  a  letter  urging  the  people  to 
stand  together,  and  John  B.  Baldwin,  when  asked 
by  a  Northern  friend  "What  will  the  Union  men 
of  Virginia  do  now?"  replied :  "There  are  no  Union 
men  left  in  Virginia."  On  April  20  Eobert  E.  Lee, 
refusing  the  chief  command  in  the  United  States 
army,  resigned  his  commission  and  offered  his  serv- 
ices to  his  state.  Governor  Letcher,  who  had  been 
a  strong  Union  man,  at  once  took  steps  for  the  de- 
fense of  the  state  and  formed  a  provisional  alliance 
with  the  Confederacy.  The  ordinance  of  secession 
was  ratified  by  the  people  May  23  by  a  vote  of  96,750 
to  32,134,  the  opposition  coming  almost  exclusively 
from  the  western  counties,  which  soon  after  took 
steps  to  separate  from  the  state.  Reluctantly  and 
in  sorrow,  but  calm  and  strong  in  the  consciousness 
of  right,  Virginia  severed  the  ties  that  bound  her  to 
the  Union  she  had  done  more  than  any  other  state 
to  form,  and  devoted  her  soil  to  the  carnage  of  war. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Ballagh:  History  of  Slavery  in  Virginia  (1902); 
Chandler:  Representation  in  Virginia  in  Johns  Hopkins  University 
Studies  (1896),  History  of  Suffrage  in  Virginia  in  Johns  Hopkins  Z7w>. 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDEEACY.          113 

versify  Studies  (1901);  Force:  American  Archives  (5th  series);  Graham: 
Life  of  General  Daniel  Morgan  (1856);  Goolrich:  Life  of  General  Hugh 
Mercer  (1906);  Heitman:  Historical  Register  of  the  Officers  of  the  Con- 
tinental Army  (1893);  Henry:  Life  of  Patrick  Henry  (1891);  Muhlenberg: 
Life  of  Major-General  Peter  Muhlenberg  (1849);  Paullin:  The  Navy  of  the 
American  Revolution  (1906);  Rhodes:  History  of  the  United  States  (Vol. 
III.,  Chaps.  XIV.  and  XV.);  Tower:  The  Marquis  de  LaFayette  in  the 
American  Revolution  (1895);Tyler:  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers  (1885); 
Weedon:  Valley  Forge  Orderly  Book  of  General  George  Weedon  (1902); 
Wise:  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union  (1881);  The  Virginia  Navy  of  the  Revo- 
lution in  Southern  Literary  Messenger  (1857,  January,  February,  March, 
and  April);  Writings  of  Washington,  Jefferson  and  Madison;  Virginia 
Debates  of  1788  in  Elliot's  Debates  (Vol.  III.);  The  Virginia  Report  and 
Debates  1798-1799  (1850);  Proceedings  and  Debates  of  the  Virginia  State 
Convention  of  1829-30  (1830);  Journal,  Acts,  and  Proceedings  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Convention  of  1850-51  (1851);  Journals  of  the  House  of  Delegates  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia. 

JOHN    HOLLADAY    LATANfc, 
Professor  of  History,  Washington  and  Lee  University. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
VIRGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY,  1861-1865. 

Virginia's  Unwillingness  to  Leave  the  Union. 

Virginia  was  attached  to  the  Union  more  strongly 
than  any  other  state.  None  of  them  had  done  so 
much  to  create  and  enrich  it.  Her  sons  had  taken 
the  leading  part  in  securing  its  independence,  and 
were  chiefly  instrumental  in  framing  the  constitu- 
tional compact,  which  was  designed  to  secure  to  each 
and  all  of  the  states  the  blessings  of  liberty  and  peace, 
without  the  sacrifice  of  rights.  When  objections  were 
made  by  other  states,  in  the  formative  period,  that 
Virginia's  vast  territorial  area  would  give  her  undue 
preponderance  in  the  new  government,  with  a  free, 
self-abnegating  hand,  she  conveyed  to  the  United 

Vol.  1-*. 


114  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

States  her  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  River  * '  for 
the  common  benefit  of  the  Union."  The  Louisiana 
purchase  made  by  President  Jefferson,  added  to  the 
national  domain  an  area  larger  than  the  original 
states.  The  armies  which  acquired  the  larger  part  of 
Mexico,  and  expanded  our  possessions  on  the  Pacific 
Ocean  into  imperial  proportions,  were  commanded  by 
Virginia  generals.  Indeed,  the  stars  in  the  blue  field 
of  the  national  flag  are  a  proof  to  those  who  know 
their  story  and  significance  of  the  Old  Dominion's 
devotion  and  sacrifices  for  the  Union.  And  not  less 
earnest,  though  unavailing,  were  Virginia's  efforts 
to  preserve  the  Union  than  those  she  had  success- 
fully made  to  secure  its  formation  and  prosperity. 

Never  did  her  people  rise  so  high  above  all  selfish 
considerations,  and  stand  upon  a  sublimer  moral 
plane,  than  when  they  took  up  arms  for  their  con- 
victions of  right  and  duty,  in  the  then  impending 
conflict.  And  it  will  ever  be  a  proud  recollection 
of  Virginians  that  every  effort  short  of  abject  hu- 
miliation and  abandonment  of  their  time-honored 
and  sacred  principles,  was  made  by  her  representa- 
tive bodies  to  avert  a  war  which  cost  ten  thousand 
millions  of  money  (five  times  the  value  of  all  the 
slaves),  and  nearly  1,000,000  men  who  perished  by 
the  sword  or  by  disease. 

On  Jan.  1,  1860,  John  Letcher,  an  ardent  Union 
man,  succeeded  Henry  A.  Wise  as  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia. In  his  inaugural  message  to  the  General 
Assembly,  he  strongly  urged  the  calling  of  a  state 
convention  to  consider  and  provide  a  remedy  for  the 
alarming  state  of  political  affairs,  if  the  Union  were 
to  be  preserved,  * '  to  which  end  everything  should  be 
done  consistent  with  honor,  patriotism  and  duty." 

Disintegrating  events,  in  rapid  succession,  signal- 
ized the  year  1860.  There  were  four  presidential 
tickets  in  the  field.  Two  of  them  represented  wings 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY.          115 

or  factions  of  the  Democratic  party,  to  wit:  (1) 
Douglas,  of  Illinois,  and  Johnson,  of  Georgia;  (2) 
Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  and  Lane,  of  Oregon. 
Another  ticket  was  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  and  Hamlin, 
of  Maine,  sectional  candidates,  upon  an  anti-slavery 
platform.  The  fourth  was  Bell,  of  Tennessee,  and 
Everett,  of  Massachusetts,  upon  the  broad  platform ; 
"The  Union,  the  Constitution  and  the  Enforcement 
of  the  Laws."  Virginia  cast  her  electoral  vote  for 
Bell  and  Everett.  Lincoln  received  a  majority  of 
the  electoral  college,  but  fell  far  short  of  a  majority 
of  the  popular  vote,  having  received  only  1,857,610 
as  against  2,804,560  cast  for  the  other  candidates. 
This  election  of  sectional  candidates  by  an  exclu- 
sively sectional  vote  caused  intense  excitement,  espe- 
cially in  the  extreme  Southern  states,  whose  people 
regarded  it  as  the  precursor  of  a  war  against  their 
reserved  rights  and  domestic  institutions. 

President  Buchanan  was  torn  by  conflicting  opin- 
ions. He  argued  against  the  right  of  secession,  but 
expressed  doubt  as  to  the  right  of  the  government 
to  coerce  a  state  by  military  force.  The  situation 
thus  became  more  complicated  and  strained  by  the 
vacillation  of  the  administration,  which  seemed  like 
a  ship  adrift  in  a  tempestuous  sea.  Seven  Southern 
states  had  seceded  and  their  senators  and  repre- 
sentatives had  withdrawn  from  Congress.  They 
took  possession  as  far  as  possible  of  such  of  the 
forts  and  arsenals  of  the  United  States  as  were 
within  their  borders,  and  demanded  those  which 
were  still  held  by  the  government. 

In  the  midst  of  these  exciting  events,  Governor 
Letcher,  on  Jan.  7,  1861,  convened  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  state  in  extra  session.  Among  its  first 
acts  was  a  call  for  a  state  convention,  the  people 
when  electing  delegates  thereto,  to  vote  also  on  the 
question  as  to  whether  any  ordinance  changing  the 


116  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

relations  of  Virginia  to  the  other  states  of  the  Union 
should  be  submitted  to  a  popular  vote  for  approval 
or  rejection.  It  also  invited  the  other  states  of  the 
Union  to  meet  Virginia  in  a  peace  conference  at 
Washington,  to  devise,  if  possible,  a  plan  of  pacifica- 
tion, naming  as  her  own  representatives  ex-Presi- 
dent John  Tyler,  William  C.  Rives,  John  W.  Brock- 
enbrough,  George  W.  Summers  and  James  A.  Sed- 
don,  from  different  parts  of  the  state,  and  all  men  of 
national  distinction.  It  also  appointed  Mr.  Tyler  a 
commissioner  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  Judge  John  Robertson  a  commissioner  to  the 
states  that  had  seceded  to  urge  them  to  refrain  from 
acts  likely  to  cause  a  collision  of  arms,  pending 
Virginia's  efforts  to  secure  peace.  The  peace  con- 
ference met  in  Washington  and  the  venerable  ex- 
President  Tyler  was  made  president  of  it. 

When  the  result  of  its  anxious  deliberations  was 
transmitted  to  Congress,  with  a  favorable  message 
from  President  Buchanan,  Senator  Crittenden  ap- 
pealed for  a  vote,  either  for  his  own  plan,  or  that  of 
the  peace  congress,  and  Senator  Hunter  declared 
that  Virginia  would  deeply  deplore  the  failure  of 
her  patriotic  mediation. 

Though  the  peace  conference  really  represented  a 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  country,  and  a  still 
greater  preponderance  of  its  wealth,  its  intelligence 
and  patriotism,  the  radical  element  of  the  North 
had  control  of  Congress,  and  rejected  all  proposi- 
tions of  compromise. 

The  Virginia  convention,  the  embodiment  of  her 
sovereignty,  met  on  Feb.  13,  1861.  Its  members 
were  chosen  from  its  ablest  and  most  distinguished 
citizens  without  regard  to  party  predilections.  Its 
composition  proved  that  the  people  of  that  state  did 
not  regard  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  as  a  sufficient  cause 
for  secession,  for  at  least  two-thirds  of  its  members 


VIEGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY.          117 

were  elected  as  "Union  men,"  and  believing  that 
there  was  still  at  the  North  a  strong  sentiment  op- 
posed to  the  coercion  of  the  seceded  states,  the  con- 
vention, "like  a  strong  man  struggling  with  the 
storms  of  fate, ' '  tried  every  expedient  of  negotiation 
in  the  hope  of  an  adjustment  which  would  restore  the 
Union. 

"Better  for  the  South  to  fight  for  its  rights  within 
the  Union  than  out  of  it,"  was  a  very  general  senti- 
ment. Notwithstanding  the  failure  of  the  peace  con- 
ference, the  convention,  soon  after  Mr.  Lincoln's 
inauguration,  sent  William  Ballard  Preston,  Alexan- 
der H.  H.  Stuart  and  George  "W.  Randolph  as  a 
committee  to  wait  upon  him  and  advise  a  pacific 
policy. 

Virginia  Secedes. 

In  the  convention  a  report  was  presented  recogniz- 
ing the  right  of  a  state  to  secede,  but  asking  for  a 
convention  of  representatives  from  the  eight  South- 
ern states  still  remaining  in  the  Union,  to  be  held 
at  Frankfort,  Ky.  "The  peculiar  relation"  of  these 
border  states  "to  the  other  states"  made  it  proper 
in  the  judgment  of  the  convention  that  they  ' '  should 
consult  together  and  concert  such  measures  for  final 
action  as  the  honor,  the  interests  and  the  safety  of 
the  people  thereof  may  demand."  While  the  re- 
ports and  amendments  were  being  discussed  the  com- 
mittee which  had  waited  upon  President  Lincoln 
returned  to  Richmond  and  reported  the  result  of 
their  mission,  whereupon  the  convention  went  into 
secret  session  to  consider  it.  While  thus  deliberat- 
ing, Mr.  Lincoln,  on  April  15,  issued  a  proclamation 
calling  for  75,000  militia,  apportioned  among  the 
states,  to  suppress  combinations  against  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  in  the  states  of  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana 
and  Texas.  It  was  stated  that  the  first  service  as- 


118  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

signed  to  the  forces  called  out,  would  probably  be  to 
repossess  the  "forts,  places  and  property  which 
had  been  seized  from  the  Union. ' '  The  quota  called 
for  from  Virginia  was  three  regiments,  embracing 
2,340  men,  to  rendezvous  at  Staunton,  Wheeling  and 
Gordonsville.  Governor  Letcher  made  prompt  reply 
in  these  memorable  words :  "I  have  only  to  say  that 
the  militia  will  not  be  furnished  to  the  powers  at 
Washington  for  any  such  use  or  purpose  as  they 
have  in  view.  Your  object  is  to  subjugate  the  South- 
ern states,  and  a  requisition  made  upon  me  for  such 
an  object — an  object,  in  my  judgment,  not  within  the 
purview  of  the  constitution  or  the  act  of  1795 — will 
not  be  complied  with.  You  have  chosen  to  inaugu- 
rate civil  war,  and  having  done  so,  we  will  meet  it  in 
a  spirit  as  determined  as  the  administration  has 
exhibited  towards  the  South." 

Lincoln's  proclamation  blasted  the  last  hope  of  a 
peaceful  settlement,  and  precipitated  the  war.  It 
also  determined  the  action  of  the  convention.  The 
Hon.  John  Goode,  the  only  survivor  of  this  distin- 
guished body,  in  his  Recollections  of  a  Lifetime, 
gives  the  following  account  of  its  action  in  view  of 
the  President's  declaration  of  war. 

"The  middle-men,  so-called,  who  had  held  on  to  the  Union  as  the 
ship-wrecked  mariner  holds  to  the  last  plank  when  the  midnight  slorm 
and  tempest  are  gathering  around  him,  were  swept  away  by  the  over- 
whelming tide  of  popular  excitement.  They  realized  that  the  Union 
had  already  been  dissolved  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  seven  seceding 
states,  and  that  the  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln  had  reduced  Vir- 
ginia to  a  most  distressing  alternative.  She  must  fight  on  one  side  or 
the  other.  She  must  unite  with  the  North  in  the  work  of  subjugation, 
or  she  must  stand  as  the  defender  of  her  Southern  sisters.  She  knew  full 
well  that  if  she  attempted  to  secede  she  would  have  to  take  upon  herself 
the  principal  burden  of  the  great  conflict;  that  every  foot  of  her  soil 
would  be  pressed  by  the  red,  fiery  hoof  of  war,  and  that  every  field  would 
Boon  become  a  battlefield.  But  she  did  not  hesitate.  She  resolved  that 
every  consideration  of  duty  and  of  honor  required  her  to  unite  her  for- 
tunes with  those  of  the  seceding  states.  On  April  16,  William  Ballard 
Preston  submitted  'An  ordinance  to  repeal  the  ratification  of  the  consti- 
tution to  the  United  States  of  America  by  the  state  of  Virginia  and  to 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY.          119 

resume  all  the  rights  and  powers  granted  under  said  constitution.'  Mr. 
Robert  E.  Scott,  of  Fauquier,  submitted  a  substitute  providing  for  a 
vote  ca  the  fourth  Thursday  of  May,  to  ascertain  the  preference  of  the 
people  between  immediate  secession  and  a  consultation  with  the  eight 
slave-holding  states  still  remaining  in  the  Union  before  taking  final  ac- 
tion. After  an  earnest  and  solemn  debate,  during  which  strong  men 
were  seen  to  shed  tears,  the  convention  on  April  17  rejected  the  proposed 
substitute  and  adopted,  by  a  vote  of  88  to  55,  the  ordinance  offered  by 
Mr.  Preston. 

"  The  ordinance  was  submitted  to  the  people,  and  on  the  fourth  Thurs- 
day of  May  it  was  ratified  by  a  large  majority,  the  vote  being  125,950 
for  ratification,  and  20,373  against  it.  It  is  proper  to  say  that  the  vote 
in  opposition  was  cast  principally  in  the  northeastern  counties,  whose 
members  had  voted  against  the  ordinance  in  the  convention,  and  which 
subsequently  formed  the  new  state  of  West  Virginia." 

Virginia's  Army. 

During  the  interval  between  the  adoption  of  the 
ordinance  of  secession  and  its  ratification  by  the 
people,  the  convention  made  provision  for  the  crea- 
tion of  an  army.  Its  action  was  kept  secret  for 
two  days,  in  order  to  give  the  volunteer  companies 
of  the  Valley  time  to  capture  the  army  and  arsenal 
at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  for  a  sufficient  force  to  as- 
semble at  Norfolk  for  the  capture  of  the  Gosport 
navy  yard,  but  the  Federal  garrisons,  learning  of  the 
movements,  set  fire  to  the  buildings  at  both  places 
and  scuttled  and  burned  the  ships  not  in  commis- 
sion at  the  navy  yard,  and  retired  upon  the  approach 
of  the  troops.  The  governor  was  empowered  to  call 
into  the  service  of  the  state  "as  many  volunteers  as 
might  be  necessary  to  repel  invasion,  and  to  invite  all 
efficient  and  worthy  Virginians  in  the  army  and  navy 
of  the  United  States  to  retire  therefrom  and  to  en- 
ter the  service  of  Virginia,  assigning  to  them  such 
rank  as  would  not  reverse  the  relative  rank  held  by 
them  in  the  United  States  service,  and  would  at  least 
be  equivalent  thereto." 

Col.  Robert  E.  Lee  was  appointed  commander-in- 
chief,  with  the  rank  of  major-general,  to  take  charge 
of  the  organization  and  operations  of  the  military  and 


120  THB  HISTORY  OF  VIBGOTA. 

naval  forces  of  the  state.  Col.  E.  S.  Garnett,  then 
holding  a  commission  of  adjutant-general  of  state 
forces,  was  General  Lee's  right-hand  man  in  or- 
ganizing and  marshalling  the  troops  that  were  to 
constitute  the  army  of  Virginia.  The  response  to 
the  governor's  call  for  volunteers  was  prompt,  en- 
thusiastic and  general,  except  in  the  extreme  north- 
western section.  The  "  Provisional  Army  for  the 
State  of  Virginia"  was  organized.  The  ''Navy  of 
Virginia"  was  established,  to  consist  of  two  thou- 
sand seamen  and  mariners,  and  provision  was  also 
made  for  the  organization  of  staff  departments  for 
the  military  forces  of  the  state.  Thus  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  organization  of  the  army  of  Virginia  was 
complete  before  the  state  formally  joined  the  South- 
ern Confederacy,  and  before  its  troops  were  merged 
by  formal  transfer  with  the  provisional  army  of  the 
Confederate  States. 

General  Lee  took  up  arms  as  a  Virginian,  and  his 
people  wish  the  world  to  regard  him  as  their  repre- 
sentative, not  only  in  his  reluctance  to  sever  the  ties 
which  had  bound  them  to  the  Union,  but  also  in  their 
determination  to  resist  to  the  utermost  the  hostile 
invasion  of  their  soil. 

Adjutant-General  Eichardson  reported  to  Gover- 
nor Letcher,  on  April  17,  1861,  the  very  day  the 
state  adopted  its  ordinance  of  secession,  that  the 
volunteer  force  of  the  state,  rank  and  file,  of  all 
arms,  amounted  to  only  18,300,  of  whom  6,150  were 
unarmed. 

The  expansion  of  this  small  nucleus  into  a  grand 
array  of  sixty-four  regiments  and  forty  battalions 
of  infantry,  twenty  regiments  and  forty  battalions 
of  cavalry,  and  125  batteries  of  artillery,  besides 
the  engineers,  the  staff,  the  navy  and  marines,  the 
militia  of  two  classes,  the  local  defense  troops  and 
reserves,  it  will  be  conceded  was  an  "outburst  of 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY.          121 

ability  and  force"  exceeding  that  of  the  Revolution- 
ary era  of  our  history. 

Until  the  rosters,  now  being  compiled  by  the  war 
department,  are  published,  the  number  of  men  fur- 
nished by  Virginia  to  the  Confederacy  cannot  be 
given  with  certainty,  but  from  the  best  data  avail- 
able at  present,  it  is  estimated  that  the  total  will  be 
about  175,000,  including  all  classes.  On  April  24, 
the  convention  appointed  commissioners  to  formu- 
late a  treaty  with  Vice-President  Stephens  for  pro- 
visional cooperation  with  the  Confederate  states, 
and  on  the  next  day  ratified  the  agreement  and 
adopted  its  provisional  constitution. 

Events  now  followed  in  quick  succession.  The 
seat  of  government  of  the  new  republic  was  trans- 
ferred from  Montgomery  to  Richmond,  the  Confed- 
erate Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  were 
housed  in  the  old  capitol  along  with  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Delegates  of  Virginia. 

Virginia's  Contribution  to  the  Confederate  Armies. 

Considering  the  meagreness  of  the  military  re- 
sources at  the  time,  there  has  never  been  a  more 
striking  exhibition  of  governmental  energy  in  mar- 
shalling and  organizing  troops  than  was  shown  by 
the  Virginia  authorities,  and  by  General  Lee,  as 
commander-in-chief,  during  the  two  months  spent  in 
getting  Virginia's  army  ready  for  the  field. 

It  was  a  complete  organzation  when  it  was  merged 
into  the  provisional  army  of  the  Confederate  states. 
The  Southern  states  sent  their  troops  to  Virginia  as 
fast  as  they  were  organized,  and  in  the  north  a  vast 
army  was  being  collected  for  the  defense  of  Wash- 
ington and  the  invasion  of  Virginia. 

The  war  was  now  on  in  earnest,  and  Virginia,  by 
reason  of  her  border  position,  became  the  main 
battleground — the  "Flanders  of  the  South." 


122  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  article  to  describe 
the  great  campaigns  and  battles  which  attracted  the 
eyes  of  the  world  to  Virginia  during  their  progress 
and  which  invest  the  localities  where  they  were 
tactically  executed  with  lasting  interest  to  historians 
and  military  students.  And  not  to  these  alone— 
for  if,  despite  the  lapse  of  ages,  patriotism  will  al- 
ways gain  force  upon  the  plain  of  Marathon,  "and 
piety  grow  warmer  among  the  ruins  of  Ionia, ' '  surely 
undying  glory  will  cling  round  the  Virginia  fields, 
whereon  her  sons  and  their  brothers  of  the  South 
for  four  years  confronted  their  gigantic  foe,  and 
won  victory  after  victory  against  tremendous  odds, 
until  their  country's  resources  were  exhausted,  and 
victory  was  no  longer  possible  to  human  valor.  No 
wonder  that  an  English  paper,  in  reviewing  the  long 
and  desperate  struggle,  enthusiastically  said :  ' '  The 
countrymen  of  Lee  and  Jackson  have  made  them- 
selves forever  famous." 

The  "Battlefields  Map,"  on  which  the  battles, 
combats  and  actions  which  took  place  within  the 
limits  of  the  state  are  located  with  red  stamps, 
shows  an  aggregate  of  1,404,  and  presents,  at  a 
single  glance,  a  theatre  of  conflict  more  crowded  with 
great  martial  exploits,  and  more  profusely  dyed  with 
patriot  blood  than  any  similar  area  of  the  earth's 
surface  whereon  great  armies  have  contended. 

The  best  history  of  Virginia  in  the  Confederacy  is 
to  be  gathered  from  the  biographies  of  her  great 
commanders,  but  it  would  be  obviously  unjust  to  her 
civil  authorities,  constituted  as  they  were  chiefly 
from  eminent  citizens  over  military  age,  to  obscure 
the  fact  that  they  measured  up  nobly  to  the  emer- 
gencies which  confronted  them. 

The  list  of  generals  appointed  from  Virginia  is  as 
follows:  The  Generals — Eobert  E.  Lee,  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  Samuel  Cooper  (adjutant  and  inspector 


123 

general) ;  Lieutenant  -  Generals  —  Jackson,  Hill, 
Ewell,  Early,  Pemberton;  Major-Generals — Heath, 
Johnson,  James  L.  Kemper,  Fitzhugh  Lee,  G.  W.  C. 
Lee,  W.  H.  F.  Lee,  Lomax,  Magruder,  Mahone, 
Maury,  Pickett,  Kodes,  Kosser,  Smith,  Stevenson, 
Stuart,  Taliaf erro ;  Brigadier-Generals — Anderson, 
Armstead,  Ashby,  Barton,  Beale,  Chambliss,  Chil- 
ton,  Cocke,  Colston,  Corse,  Bearing,  Echols,  Floyd, 
Garland,  E.  B.  Garnett,  E.  S.  Garnett,  Harris,  Hun- 
ton,  Imboden,  W.  L.  Jackson,  Jenkins,  J.  M.  Jones, 
J.  E.  Jones,  E.  G.  Lee,  Lilley,  Long,  McCausland, 
Moore,  Munford,  Page,  Paxton,  Payne,  Pegram, 
Pendleton,  Pryor,  Eandolph,  Eeynolds,  Eobertson, 
Euggles,  Slaughter,  Starke,  Stevens,  Terrill,  W. 
Terry,  W.  E.  Terry,  J.  A.  Walker,  H.  H.  Walker, 
E.  L.  Walker,  Weisiger,  Wharton,  Wickham,  Wise. 
The  Virginians  in  the  old  navy  came  home  prompt- 
ly upon  the  call.  They  were  a  splendid  galaxy,  and 
wanted  only  the  opportunity  to  achieve  greater  suc- 
cess and  distinction  than  was  possible  under  the 
existing  conditions.  But  the  naval  power  of  the 
North  was  a  far  more  effective  factor  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  Confederacy  than  were  its  land  forces. 
This  was  because  of  its  overwhelming  preponder- 
ance as  compared  with  the  Confederate  naval  power. 
Many  instances  may  be  cited  when  the  armies  of  the 
North,  after  defeat  in  the  field,  sought  safety  under 
the  guns  of  their  fleets.  This  was  McClellan's  refuge 
at  Harrison's  Landing,  after  the  seven  days'  battles 
around  Eichmond.  It  severed  the  Confederacy,  and 
made  of  no  avail  the  large  body  of  troops  and  much 
needed  food  supplies  in  the  Trans-Mississippi  coun- 
try. When  Grant 's  ' t  On  to  Eichmond ' '  was  arrested 
by  the  disaster  to  his  army  at  second  Cold  Harbor, 
the  navy  was  invoked  to  aid  in  the  transfer  of  his 
base  to  the  south  side  of  the  James.  It  is  mar- 
vellous, in  view  of  this  immense  superiority  in  naval 


124  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

power  and  armament,  that  the  Confederate  navy 
made  so  brilliant  a  record.  The  explanation  is  to 
be  found  in  the  genius  and  audacity  of  its  splendid 
personnel.  The  great  sea  fight  in  Hampton  Roads, 
in  which  the  home-made  ironclad  Virginia  (Merri- 
mac),  with  her  wooden  consorts,  the  Raleigh,  the 
Henry,  the  Jefferson  and  Teaser,  sank  the  Cumber- 
land and  Congress,  and  drove  the  Monitor  to  the 
shelter  of  shallow  water,  revolutionized  naval  war- 
fare the  world  over,  and  made  a  glorious  chapter  in 
the  annals  of  the  sea,  worthy  of  the  days  of  Nelson 
and  John  Paul  Jones. 

The  war  governors  of  Virginia  were  the  Hon.  John 
Letcher  and  Gen.  William  Smith,  ripe  statesmen 
and  noble  patriots,  the  latter  having  won  laurels  in 
the  field  before  being  called,  for  the  second  time,  to 
the  chair  of  state.  President  Davis  and  the  Confed- 
erate government  had  no  more  earnest  and  loyal 
supporters,  and  never  had  the  state  more  devoted 
and  efficient  .executives.  Adopting  Grattan  's  phrase 
in  regard  to  Irish  freedom  to  Virginia  in  the  Con- 
federacy, it  may  be  truly  said  that  Letcher  ''sat  at 
its  cradle"  and  Smith  "followed  its  hearse." 

There  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  this  war  period 
which  no  true  American  can  recall  without  a  blush 
of  shame.  It  relates  to  the  wanton  cruelties  and  out- 
rages upon  unoffending  citizens,  notably  in  the  Shen- 
andoah  Valley,  and  the  brutal  disregard  of  the  us- 
ages of  civilized  warfare  and  the  dictates  of  human- 
ity by  some  of  the  officers  of  highest  rank  in  the 
Union  army.  Monuments  may  be  erected  to  them, 
but  their  infamy  cannot  escape  the  avenging  pen 
of  history.  "Since  the  fall  of  Robespierre,"  said 
the  Hon.  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  "nothing  has  occurred 
to  cast  so  much  disrepute  upon  Republican  institu- 
tions. ' ' 

The  defense  of  Richmond  was  not  so  important 


JOSEPH  E.  JOHNSTON. 


TIBGINIA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY.          125 

because  it  was  the  capital  of  the  state  and  of  the 
Confederacy,  as  from  the  fact  that  its  foundries, 
rolling  mills,  manufacturing  establishments  and  rail- 
road connections  were,  practically,  the  only  source 
for  the  supply  of  the  war  and  railway  material  es- 
sential to  the  maintenance  of  the  armies  in  the  field. 
The  loss  of  Richmond,  at  any  period  of  the  war, 
would  probably  have  been  fatal  to  the  Confederacy. 
The  campaigns  of  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
including  Jackson's  and  Early 's  campaigns  in  the 
Valley,  which  caused  consternation  in  Washington, 
were  planned  primarily  for  the  defense  of  Rich- 
mond, and  this  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  studying 
them.  The  Federal  government  from  the  beginning 
realized  the  importance  of  capturing  Richmond,  and 
the  Federal  army,  sent  out  in  1861,  which  was  de- 
feated at  Manassas  by  Beauregard  and  others,  was 
moving  towards  Richmond.  In  1862,  the  famous 
campaigns  around  Richmond  directed  by  M^Clellan, 
which  came  to  defeat  at  the  hands  of  Joseph  E.  John- 
ston and  Robert  E.  Lee,  were  for  the  same  purpose. 
This  was  followed  by  Burnside's  attempt  and  his 
defeat  by  Lee  at  Fredericksburg,  and  Hooker's  at- 
tempt and  his  defeat  by  Lee  at  Chancellorsville  in 
May,  1863.  The  effort  to  capture  Richmond  was 
renewed  in  the  spring  of  1864  by  General  Grant,  and 
was  never  abandoned  until  the  Confederacy  fell. 

When  Richmond  was  evacuated  April  2,  1865,  the 
fall  of  the  Confederacy  was  at  hand.  It  was  a  great 
heroic  struggle  that  had  been  made  to  hold  the  capi- 
tal of  the  Confederacy,  and  it  took  four  years  for 
the  Federal  armies  to  conquer  it. 

Conclusion. 

The  population  of  Virginia  by  the  census  of  1860 
was  1,579,318.  As  a  result  of  the  war  and  dismem- 
berment of  the  state  it  was  1,225,163  in  1870. 


126 

No  sketch  of  the  Confederacy  is  complete  which 
fails  to  mention  the  work  of  the  Virginia  women 
and  their  Southern  sisters.  The  influence  they 
wielded  was  second  to  none  other  in  its  effect  upon 
the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy.  But  for  the  en- 
thusiasm and  encouragement  so  lavishly  supplied 
from  this  inspiring  source,  the  labors  of  statesmen 
and  the  plans  of  generals  might  have  gone  for 
nought. 

•  "Eras,"  says  Froude,  "like  individuals,  differ 
from  one  another  in  the  species  of  virtue  which 
they  encourage.  In  one  age  we  find  the  virtues  of  the 
warrior,  in  the  next  of  the  saint."  In  the  era  of 
which  we  have  written,  Virginia  had  the  honor  of 
giving  to  the  world  a  representative  Hero,  in  whom 
the  highest  virtues  of  warrior  and  Christian  were 
happily  blended — a  model  for  the  uplifting  of  the 
human  race  and  the  exaltation  of  the  moral  stand- 
ards of  the  world. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Anderson,  Archer:  "Robert  Edward  Lee"  (an  Ad- 
dress delivered  at  the  unveiling  of  the  equestrian  monument  in  Rich- 
mond); Bell,  J.  W.:  Memoirs  of  Gov.  William  Smith;  Bruce,  P.  A.: 
Robert  E,  Lee  (American  Crisis  Biographies);  Dabney,  R.  L.:  Defence  of 
Virginia  and  of  the  South;  Davis,  Jefferson:  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Con- 
federate Government;  Goode,  John:  Recollections  of  a  Lifetime;  Gordon, 
John  B.:  Reminiscences  of  the  Civil  War;  Henderson,  G.  F.  R.:  Stonewall 
Jackson  and  the  American  Civil  War,  Hotchkiss,  Jed.:  Confederate  Mil- 
itary History  (Vol.  III.,  Virginia);  Lee,  Robert  E.:  Recollections  and  Let- 
ters of  General  R.  E.  Lee;  Lee,  Fitzhugh:  General  R.  E.  Lee  (Great  Com- 
mander Series);  Long,  A.  L.:  Memoirs  of  General  Lee;  McCabe,  W.  Gor- 
don: "Siege  of  Petersburg"  (an  Address  before  the  Association  of  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia);  McGuire,  Christian:  The  Confederate  Cause 
and  Conduct  in  the  War  between  the  States;  Taylor,  Richard:  Destruction 
and  Reconstruction;  Official  Records  of  the  Union  and  Confederate 
Annies;  Southern  Historical  Society  Publications. 

EGBERT  W.  HUNTER, 

Secretary  of  Virginia  Military  Records,  Richmond. 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  127 

CHAPTER  VII. 
VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION,  1865-1909. 

Reconstruction  and  Readmission  into  the  Union. 

From  1861  to  1865  two  rival  state  governments 
claimed  the  allegiance  of  the  people  of  Virginia.  The 
regular  state  government  with  its  seat  at  Richmond 
supported  the  Confederacy.  The  so-called  "Re- 
stored Government  of  Virginia",  with  its  seat  at 
Wheeling  and  later  at  Alexandria,  consented  to  the 
erection  of  the  northwest  counties  of  Virginia  into 
the  state  of  West  Virginia  and  supported  the  Fed- 
eral government. 

After  the  evacuation  of  Richmond  by  the  Con- 
federate forces  and  the  flight  of  President  Davis  and 
Governor  Smith,  martial  law  was  declared  and  re- 
mained in  force  until  May,  1865,  when  Gov.  F.  H. 
Pierpont,  of  the  "Restored  Government,"  moved 
from  Alexandria  to  Richmond  under  instructions  of 
President  Johnson  and  undertook  to  govern  the  state 
by  the  aid  of  the  Federal  military  authorities.  This 
recognition  of  the  Pierpont  government  gave  Vir- 
ginia a  status  different  from  that  of  most  of  the 
secession  states.  The  state  had  a  government  in  a 
measure  representative  of  the  people  until  it  was 
destroyed  by  the  congressional  reconstruction  acts 
of  1867.  A  legislature  composed  of  three  senators 
and  nine  representatives  met  in  Richmond  in  June, 
1865,  enacted  several  needed  laws,  and  provided  for 
the  election  of  a  legislature  really  representative  of 
the  white  people  of  the  state. 

It  was  felt  that  Virginia  was  now  virtually  re- 
stored to  the  Union.  Speaker  Downey,  of  the  House 
of  Delegates,  said:  "Virginia  is  now  safe.  What- 


128  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

ever  they  may  do  to  other  states,  they  can  not  force 
a  provisional  government  upon  her.  Whatever  they 
may  do  to  other  states,  thank  God,  they  can  not  sad- 
dle negro  suffrage  upon  us. ' ' 

The  election  was  held  in  October,  1865,  and  only 
about  40,000  votes  were  cast.  Of  the  eight  men 
elected  to  Congress,  not  one  was  a  Republican.  The 
radical  vote  in  the  Alexandria  district  was  1,732,  the 
largest  in  the  state.  Party  contests  took  place  in 
only  a  few  counties.  The  people,  stunned  and  dazed 
by  the  results  of  the  war,  were  apathetic  and  mani- 
fested little  interest  in  politics.  Distinctions  be- 
tween Whigs  and  Democrats  had  been  largely  oblit- 
erated by  the  war.  No  new  party  organization  had 
been  created  except  the  Republican  party,  which  was 
insignificant  in  numbers  and  influence.  Governor 
Pierpont  labored  to  re-establish  civil  government 
and  to  restore  the  state  to  her  former  status  in  the 
Union.  The  appointments  made  by  the  governor 
were  very  generally  commended.  The  press  began 
to  assume  an  independent  tone,  for  which  several 
papers  were,  by  the  military  authorities,  ordered  to 
suspend  publication.  The  Federal  military  authori- 
ties continued  to  exercise  the  privilege  of  declaring 
elections  null  and  void  and  to  show  in  numerous 
ways  that  they  regarded  the  Pierpont  government  as 
a  mere  provisional  makeshift. 

When  the  legislature  met  it  elected  two  United 
States  Senators.  Virginia  now  had  a  full  state  gov- 
ernment and  had  elected  Representatives  and  Sen- 
ators in  Congress.  The  slaves  were  free;  no  army 
hostile  to  the  United  States  was  in  the  field.  The 
citizens  accepted  in  good  faith  the  results  of  the  war 
and  sought  restoration  to  the  Union.  According  to 
the  Lincoln-Johnson  plan,  Virginia  had  done  all 
that  was  necessary  on  her  part.  The  acceptance  of 
her  Congressional  Representatives  at  Washington 


ARMS  OF  VIRGINIA. 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  129 

would  render  her  restoration  complete.  Congress 
refused  to  seat  the  Representatives  from  Virginia. 
The  presidential  plan  of  reconstruction  was  con- 
temptuously rejected,  and  Congress  undertook  the 
work  of  ' '  reconstructing  the  rebel  states. ' ' 

Early  in  December,  1865,  the  legislature  convened 
in  Richmond,  repealed  the  disfranchising  clause  of 
the  Alexandria  Constitution,  as  it  had  been  author- 
ized to  do  by  the  popular  vote  in  October,  enacted 
vagrant  and  contract  laws,  wiped  out  of  the  statute 
books  all  laws  relating  to  slaves  and  slavery,  placed 
negroes  on  about  the  same  footing  as  whites  as  re- 
gards civil  rights,  but  did  not  grant  them  the  privi- 
lege of  voting  and  holding  office. 

The  vagrant  act  in  particular  was  much  criticised 
by  the  radicals  and  a  few  of  the  military  command- 
ers who  insisted  that  the  ultimate  effect  of  the  act 
was  virtually  to  re-enslave  the  f reedmen  and  to  hold 
them  in  a  condition  worse  than  chattel  slavery.  Gen- 
eral Terry  ordered  that  no  officer,  civil  or  military, 
should  enforce  this  act.  These  laws  were  much  mild- 
er than  in  some  other  Southern  states  and  in  some 
of  the  New  England  states.  There  was  no  effort  or 
intention  in  Virginia  to  re-enslave  the  negroes 
through  vagrant  and  contract  laws.  Although  they 
were  economically  and  socially  justifiable,  owing  to 
the  state  of  public  opinion  in  the  North,  it  was  not 
wise  to  enact  them.  Moreover,  it  would  have  been 
prudent  to  concede  to  the  negroes  a  few  rights  and 
privileges  that  were  withheld. 

The  legislature,  despite  the  advice  of  the  govern- 
or, rejected  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  by  a  vote  of 
27  to  0  in  the  Senate,  and  74  to  1  in  the  House.  The 
refusal  to  ratify  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  the 
enactment  of  the  so-called  " black  codes"  of  the 
South,  the  doctrine  of  equality  in  the  North,  the 
desire  to  punish  and  humiliate  the  South  led,  in 

Vd  1—9. 


130  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

March,  1867,  to  the  passage  of  the  Congressional 
reconstruction  acts  by  which  the  Pierpont  govern- 
ment was  practically  destroyed  and  the  state  made 
"Military  District  Number  One."  Gen.  John  M. 
Schofield  was  made  commander  of  this  district  with 
power  "to  abolish,  control,  modify  or  supersede" 
the  state  government.  The  negroes  were  enfran- 
chised. The  most  influential  and  intelligent  whites 
were  disenfranchised.  Stevens 's  "conquered  prov- 
ince" theory  had  been  sanctioned  by  Congress.  Vir- 
ginia was  in  reality  no  longer  a  state  but  was  merely 
a  district.  For  more  than  two  and  a  half  years  it 
remained  a  mere  military  satrapy. 

The  Reconstruction  Acts  gave  the  ballot  to  the 
negroes  and  provided  for  a  convention  to  amend  the 
constitution.  The  radicals  had  hesitated  to  enfran- 
chise the  freedmen,  as  it  was  feared  that  the  tradi- 
tional control  of  the  negroes  by  the  whites  would 
enable  them  to  control  the  votes  of  their  former 
slaves.  The  relation  between  whites  and  blacks  was 
quite  cordial  for  about  one  year  after  the  close  of 
the  war.  The  whites  felt  little  or  no  hostility  to- 
wards the  negroes  on  account  of  their  changed  con- 
dition. Most  of  the  negroes  still  respected  and  trust- 
ed their  old  masters. 

Radical  teachers  from  the  North,  demagogues,  and 
carpetbaggers,  soon  estranged  the  negroes  and  ar- 
rayed them  against  the  whites.  The  Freedman's 
Bureau  and  the  Union  League  were  the  organized 
agencies  through  which  this  alienation  was  accom- 
plished. The  Bureau  was  established  in  Virginia  in 
1865,  and  rendered  some  good  service  in  protecting 
and  feeding  the  blacks  who  were,  in  almost  every 
sense,  unprepared  for  immediate  emancipation.  Its 
officials  witnessed  and  approved  labor  contracts  be- 
tween whites  and  blacks,  assisted  the  negroes  in  se- 
curing justice  in  the  courts,  supplied  many  of  them 


VIEGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  131 

with  the  means  of  making  a  crop,  and  established 
schools  for  the  freedmen. 

The  officials  were  vested  with  great  and  ill-defined 
powers  which  were  frequently  abused.  They  often 
ignored  the  civil  courts,  assumed  to  administer  jus- 
tice, bullied  the  whites,  ostentatiously  exercised  their 
authority  and  wantonly  humiliated  the  leading  citi- 
zens. They  generally  gave  a  ready  ear  to  the 
negroes'  stories  of  outrages,  and  encouraged  them 
to  prefer  charges  against  the  whites.  Their  pres- 
ence encouraged  the  blacks  in  idleness  and  insolence 
and  destroyed  the  friendly,  confidential  relations 
formerly  existing  between  whites  and  blacks. 

The  Union  League  was  a  secret  political  society 
which  undertook  to  instruct  the  negroes  in  their  du- 
ties as  citizens  and  to  pledge  them  to  act  and  vote 
with  the  Republican  party.  The  League  accom- 
plished little  in  enlightening  the  late  slaves  but  suc- 
ceeded in  alienating  almost  all  negroes  from  their 
old  masters  and  brought  them  under  the  influence 
of  the  radical  Republican  leaders. 

The  radicals  and  negroes  had,  in  the  summer  of 
1867,  refused  to  "co-operate"  with  the  representa- 
tive white  citizens  in  restoring  political  and  social 
order.  The  election  of  delegates  to  the  constitutional 
convention  was  held  in  October,  1867.  About  94,000 
negroes  voted.  Of  this  number  only  about  600  ne- 
groes voted  with  the  conservative  white  element.  One 
hundred  and  five  delegates  were  elected,  thirty-three 
conservatives  and  seventy-two  radicals.  The  radical 
majority  included  five  foreign  born,  twenty-five  ne- 
groes, twenty-eight  Northerners,  and  fourteen  Vir- 
ginians. Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  state  had 
negroes  sat  in  a  law-making  body.  The  former  po- 
litical leaders  were  absent.  The  state  had  been 
revolutionized. 

The  convention  was  turbulent  and  garrulous.    The 


132  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

negro  members  favored  mixed  schools  for  the  races, 
heavy  taxes  on  land,  disfranchising  and  "test  oath" 
clauses,  and  other  radical  measures;  but  the  con- 
vention would  not  consent  to  mixed  schools. 

The  new  constitution  was  very  unpopular  and  was 
not  submitted  to  the  people  for  ratification  until  July 
6, 1869.  The  disfranchising  and  "test  oath"  clauses 
were  submitted  to  a  separate  vote  and  rejected.  The 
constitution  was  adopted.  The  nominee  of  the  radi- 
cals and  negroes,  H.  H.  Wells,  who  had  been  made 
provisional  governor  of  Virginia  by  General  Scho- 
field,  commander  of  "District  Number  One,"  was 
defeated  by  Gilbert  C.  Walker,  the  nominee  of  the 
conservatives  and  liberal  Republicans.  The  legisla- 
ture was  conservative  by  a  large  majority.  The  aim 
of  the  reconstructionists  had  failed;  Virginia  was 
not  to  have  a  radical  and  negro  regime  such  as  had 
plundered  and  disgraced  several  Southern  states. 

Virginia  was  fully  restored  to  the  Union  in  Janu- 
ary, 1870,  by  the  admission  of  her  representatives  to 
seats  in  Congress.  No  law-making  body  had  existed 
in  Virginia  for  almost  three  years.  A  provisional 
governor,  in  all  respects  subservient  to  the  military, 
had  exercised  a  shadowy  authority.  Nearly  five 
years  had  elapsed  since  the  close  of  the  war;  nine 
years  since  her  withdrawal  from  the  Union.  In 
that  time  old  Virginia  and  the  old  Nation  had  passed 
away.  In  1870  she  became  a  new  state  in  a  new 
Nation. 

Since  1870  the  political  history  of  Virginia  has 
been  uneventful.  No  guerrilla  warfare  in  Virginia 
had  followed  the  surrender.  She  probably  suffered 
less  from  political  misrule  of  the  carpetbaggers  and 
negroes  than  any  other  Southern  state. 

The  constitution,  ratified  in  1869,  had  never  been 
popular.  Several  amendments  had  rendered  it  less 
objectionable ;  yet  many  felt  that  it  was  burdensome 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  133 

and  did  not  meet  the  needs  of  the  times.  In  1901 
a  new  constitution  was  formed  and  proclaimed  with- 
out submission  for  popular  approval.  Many  impor- 
tant changes  were  made.  The  time-honored  county 
court  was  abolished.  A  corporation  commission  with 
very  extensive  powers  was  created.  An  educational 
qualification  and  the  payment  of  a  small  poll  tax 
were  prescribed  for  voters.  The  suffrage  provisions 
were  ostensibly  aimed  at  ignorant  voters  regardless 
of  color.  The  actual  result  is  the  disfranchisement 
of  a  few  whites  and  most  of  the  negroes. 

The  State  Debt. 

About  1820  Virginia  entered  upon  a  policy  of  in- 
ternal improvements.  She  was  a  large  shareholder 
in  several  railroads,  canals,  turnpikes  and  other  en- 
terprises. She  had  also  guaranteed  bonds  for  indus- 
trial companies  and  municipalities.  To  pay  for  her 
shares  in  the  railroad  and  canal  companies  she  had 
issued  bonds.  The  liabilities  contracted  in  this  way 
amounted  to  nearly  $40,000,000  in  1860.  The  state 
as  a  partner  or  surety  for  the  payment  of  bonds 
had  developed  her  resources,  but  in  the  end  she  lost 
heavily  from  her  shares  in  these  improvements,  as 
she  abandoned,  surrendered  or  released  many  of  her 
claims  without  any  remuneration. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  most  of  these  bonds  were 
owned  or  held  in  the  North  or  in  Europe.  Virginia 
had  lost  one-third  of  her  territory,  one-fifth  of  her 
taxable  values,  and  more  than  440,000  of  her  popu- 
lation by  the  erection  of  her  northwest  counties  into 
the  state  of  West  Virginia  in  1863.  Her  commerce 
and  shipping  were  completely  destroyed.  Her  trans- 
portation system  was  badly  crippled.  Many  manu- 
facturing establishments  had  closed.  A  large  part 
of  the  state  had  been  devastated  by  contending 
armies.  Her  financial  system  was  ruined,  her  bank- 


134  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

ing  capital  of  $11,000,000  had  vanished,  slaves  worth 
$100,000,000  in  1860  had  been  set  free,  and  the  in- 
terest on  the  public  debt  from  1861  was  unpaid. 

In  this  wasted  and  depressed  condition  of  the 
state,  repudiation  of  the  debt  was  suggested,  but 
this  did  not  appeal  to  the  Virginians'  sense  of  honor. 
The  last  legislature  of  the  old  regime  met  in  Decem- 
ber, 1865,  and  voted  unanimously  to  pay  the  debt 
with  the  accrued  interest.  It  was  considered  that 
one- third  of  this  debt  was  West  Virginia's  fair 
share.  She  had  obligated  herself  in  her  " ordinance" 
to  assume  an  equitable  share  of  Virginia's  debt.  In 
February,  1866,  the  legislature  made  provisions  to 
pay  4  per  cent,  interest  on  the  entire  debt,  leaving 
West  Virginia  to  pay  2  per  cent.  As  West  Virginia 
took  no  steps  to  meet  her  share  of  the  interest  nor 
to  pay  any  of  the  debt,  Virginia,  in  1871,  refunded 
the  debt  for  two-thirds  of  its  face  at  6  per  cent. 
In  1870,  Governor  Walker,  in  his  message,  had  esti- 
mated the  total  debt  at  about  $46,000,000. 

The  funding  bill  of  1871  was  very  unsatisfactory 
to  a  large  number,  who  considered  excessive  Gover- 
nor Walker's  estimate,  both  of  the  debt  justly  due 
and  the  resources  of  the  state.  This  feeling  brought 
into  existence  the  readjuster  party  under  the  leader- 
ship of  General  Mahone.  It  was  composed  of  ne- 
groes, most  of  the  Eepublicans,  and  many  white 
Democrats.  Its  object  was  to  "readjust"  the  debt. 
This  party  gained  control  of  the  legislature  and,  in 
1881,  elected  William  E.  Cameron  governor.  After 
a  few  years  many  of  the  white  men  returned  to  the 
regular  Democratic  party,  but  many  remained  with 
the  readjuster  party,  which  for  several  years  dis- 
claimed any  sympathy  with  the  Eepublican  party. 
In  1881  General  Mahone,  as  a  United  States  senator, 
identified  himself  with  the  Eepublicans.  A  large 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  135 

number  of  white  men,  especially  in  the  Southwest, 
followed  him. 

Since  1886  the  Democrats  have  controlled  every 
branch  of  the  state  government.  For  more  than 
twenty  years  the  debt  question  was  the  chief  issue 
in  Virginia  politics  and  absorbed  almost  exclusively 
the  attention  of  the  legislature.  The  debt  was  finally 
adjusted  and  bonded  in  1892.  This  controversy  is  a 
very  unsatisfactory  chapter  in  Virginia  history.  In 
the  bondholders'  interest  Virginia  brought  suit  to 
compel  West  Virginia  to  meet  her  share  of  the  debt. 
The  United  States  Supreme  Court,  in  1908,  ap- 
pointed a  special  master  to  examine  the  claims,  and 
though  still  undecided,  the  rulings  indicate  that 
[West  Virginia  will  be  required  to  pay  her  portion. 

Political  Conditions. 

The  reconstruction  acts  in  the  spring  of  1867  en- 
franchised the  negroes  and  disfranchised  many 
whites.  The  carpetbaggers  flocked  to  Virginia  and 
ingratiated  themselves  into  the  favor  and  confidence 
of  the  negroes.  The  number  of  carpetbaggers  in 
Virginia  was  never  large,  but  their  influence  was  out 
of  all  proportion  to  their  number  for  several  years 
succeeding  1867. 

Virginia  had  no  state  government  from  1867  to 
1870,  but  was  governed  through  the  military.  The 
army  officers  usually  strove  to  be  just  and  moderate. 
A  state  government  controlled  by  the  carpetbaggers, 
scalawags,  and  radical  leaders  of  the  negroes  would 
have  been  more  burdensome  and  odious  than  mili- 
tary government.  Fortunately  Virginia  was  held  as 
a  military  district  until  theoretical  differences  and 
factional  quarrels  had  weakened  the  radicals  and  the 
conservatives  had  an  organization  that  enabled  them 
in  1869  to  purge  the  constitution  of  the  proposed 
"disfranchising"  and  "test  oath"  clauses,  and  to 


136  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

elect  a  governor  and  legislature  in  a  large  measure 
representative  of  the  intelligence  and  property  of 
the  state. 

The  negroes  of  Virginia  were  superior  to  those  of 
any  other  Southern  state,  yet  they  were  not  pre- 
pared for  the  ballot.  They  had  been  told  that  the 
land  of  the  secessionists  would  be  divided  amongst 
them.  To  hasten  this  division  of  the  land  and  to 
make  sure  of  other  rights  and  privileges,  they  eager- 
ly entered  politics. 

For  several  years  their  unvarying  practice  was 
to  find  out  what  measures  and  candidates  the  con- 
servative whites  favored  and  then  vote  solidly 
against  them.  This  made  it  impossible  for  the  in- 
telligent men  of  the  state  to  cooperate  with  them. 
This  refusal  of  the  blacks  to  divide  on  political  ques- 
tions forced  the  whites  to  disregard  national  issues 
and  stand  as  a  unit  for  decent  local  government, 
which  could  be  attained  only  through  white  su- 
premacy. 

In  no  country  have  English-speaking  white  people 
tolerated  negro  supremacy  and  it  was  not  to  be 
expected  that  Virginians  would  allow  their  civiliza- 
tion to  be  imperiled  by  allowing  an  ignorant  negro 
minority,  led  by  unscrupulous  white  demagogues,  to 
plunder  and  betray  the  state.  In  the  Valley  and 
Southwest  the  negroes  were  only  about  15  per  cent, 
of  the  population.  White  supremacy  was  assured 
in  these  sections.  East  of  the  Blue  Eidge  more  than 
50  per  cent,  of  the  population  was  colored.  In  the 
South  Side  there  were  almost  220,000  negroes  in 
1865.  In  many  counties  the  blacks  constituted  two- 
thirds  of  the  population.  In  the  parts  of  the  state 
where  they  were  most  numerous  they  were  most  ig- 
norant and  unfit  to  vote.  The  alien  and  renegade 
leaders  of  the  negroes  committed  gross  frauds  in 
elections.  This  condition  of  affairs  explains,  if  it 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  137 

does  not  justify,  the  use  by  the  whites  of  the  "tissue 
ballot"  and  other  forms  of  fraud  in  elections.  Great 
ingenuity  and  resourcefulness  were  manifested  in 
circumventing  the  negro  voters. 

Probably  the  ballot  has  done  the  blacks  some  good, 
but  it  has  also  hurt  them  in  many  ways.  They  were 
debauched  by  their  leaders  and  brought  into  antag- 
onism to  the  whites.  In  the  late  70 's  and  80 's  they 
exercised  a  considerable  influence  in  the  "readjuster 
party."  The  negro  has  been  gradually  losing  influ- 
ence as  a  political  factor  in  Virginia  and  is  now 
practically  eliminated  by  the  new  constitution. 

Virginia,  as  well  as  all  other  Southern  states,  has 
suffered  from  the  subordination  of  all  other  issues 
to  white  supremacy,  yet  it  has  seemed  to  her  that, 
in  justice  to  her  highest  interest,  she  could  not  do 
otherwise.  In  the  Southwest  where  the  negroes  are 
only  a  small  part  of  the  population  the  people  have 
shown  a  disposition  to  ignore  the  race  question 
and  to  divide  on  other  issues.  The  elimination  of 
the  ignorant  negro  voter  by  the  new  constitution 
will  probably  bring  about  the  same  result  in  other 
sections.  Before  the  war  Virginians  divided  on 
national  issues;  since  1867  the  race  question  has 
claimed  the  larger  share  of  their  attention. 

Universal  Education. 

The  establishment  of  an  efficient  system  of  public 
education  in  Virginia  was  one  of  the  most  important 
results  of  the  upheaval  attending  the  war. 

Prior  to  1860  there  was  no  real  public  free  school 
system.  The  state  made  an  annual  appropriation 
of  $45,000  for  the  education  of  the  poor  white  chil- 
dren and  empowered  the  counties  to  establish  free 
schools.  The  law  was  not  compulsory,  and  free 
schools  did  not  become  general.  In  1850  a  capita- 
tion tax  was  levied  for  the  support  of  schools.  In 


138  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

1850  there  were,  in  all  schools  of  the  state,  public 
and  private,  only  about  52,000  children.  In  1860 
there  were  67,000,  of  whom  31,000  were  enrolled  as 
paupers.  There  were  no  negroes  in  school.  The 
conditions  under  which  poor  white  children,  in  most 
places,  could  receive  the  benefit  of  the  state's  appro- 
priation for  schools,  were  destructive  of  self-respect. 
In  the  minds  of  most  of  the  people  a  public  school 
was  a  pauper  school.  Consequently  it  exerted  little 
influence. 

The  white  children  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes 
were  educated  in  the  "old  field"  schools.  The  teach- 
ers were  often  men  of  fine  scholarship  and  gave 
sound  instruction  in  English,  mathematics,  the 
classics,  and  history.  There  the  sons  of  the  leading 
families  were  prepared  for  the  classical  academies. 
Thence  some  went  to  the  university ;  a  large  number, 
to  their  life's  work.  The  "old  field"  schools  and 
classical  academies  were  reopened  in  1865.  They 
were  inadequate  and  un  suited  to  the  novel  condi- 
tions existing  after  the  war.  Schools  of  these  types 
are  still  to  be  found  maintaining  the  best  traditions 
of  the  past,  yet  their  influence  has  declined,  both 
absolutely  and  relatively. 

It  was  universally  felt  at  the  close  of  the  war  that 
a  complete  system  of  state  education  should  be  estab- 
lished and  popularized.  The  aristocratic  framework 
of  society  had  been  destroyed.  The  state  had  been 
democratized.  Social,  economic  and  political  life 
had  been  revolutionized.  More  than  one-half  million 
ignorant  negroes  had  been  injected  into  the  citizen- 
ship. As  long  as  they  were  slaves  their  masters  had 
cared  for  their  manual  and  moral  training.  As 
freedmen  they  could  no  longer  receive  this  industrial 
and  ethical  discipline  as  formerly.  They  had  been 
declared  freemen  and  citizens  and  could  justly  claim 
from  the  state  an  education  that  would  fit  them  to 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  139 

meet  the  responsibilities  of  freedom  and  to  discharge 
the  duties  of  citizenship  which  had  been  thrust  upon 
them.  The  state,  in  self-defense,  had  to  provide  for 
their  education. 

The  public  free  schools  in  existence  before  1860 
had  been  distasteful  to  the  indigent  whites.  The 
aristocratic  character  of  society  in  a  large  part  of 
Virginia  had  not  been  favorable  to  free  public  schools 
in  any  form.  It  was,  therefore,  necessary,  not  only 
to  establish  a  free  system  of  education,  but  to  over- 
come the  prejudice  against  it.  The  constitution  of 
1870  provided  for  a  system  of  public  free  schools  to 
be  administered  impartially  between  the  white  and 
black  races.  This  was  to  be  supported  by  state  and 
local  taxes,  and  the  income  received  from  the  Liter- 
ary Fund.  In  1870  the  legislature  passed  an  act 
creating  a  complete  free  school  system  for  the  entire 
Btate.  Equal  educational  privileges  were  given 
white  and  black  children  in  separate  schools.  The 
greater  part  of  the  taxes  are  paid  by  the  whites; 
nevertheless  the  state  school  funds  are  distributed 
on  a  per  capita  basis  and  not  according  to  the  amount 
paid  by  each  race.  The  state  has  undertaken  in 
good  faith  to  educate  negroes.  They  have  from  the 
beginning  manifested  great  interest  in  education. 
In  some  respects  they  have  been  disappointed. 
"Book  learning"  has  not  done  for  them  all  that  they 
had  hoped.  Probably  the  kind  of  education  they 
have  received  in  both  public  and  private  schools 
is  not  the  kind  that  best  fits  them  for  their  station 
and  work  in  life. 

In  1870  there  were  only  59,000  children  in  school. 
Ten  thousand  of  these  were  negroes  in  schools  estab- 
lished by  Northern  societies  and  the  Freedman's 
Bureau.  The  act  of  1870  creating  a  complete  free 
school  system  went  into  effect  immediately.  During 
the  scholastic  year  of  1870-71,  the  number  of  children 


140  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

in  schools  rose  to  158,000.  This  was  an  increase  of 
99,000  over  the  number  in  1870  and  more  than  twice 
as  many  as  had  ever  before  been  in  schools,  public 
and  private,  in  a  single  year. 

For  several  years  many  white  people  stood  aloof, 
but  prejudice  gradually  wore  away.  The  public 
schools  have  constantly  grown  in  efficiency  and  popu- 
lar favor.  Practically  all  people  of  all  classes  now 
patronize  them.  Probably  in  nothing  else  is  the 
contrast  between  antebellum  and  postbellum  Vir- 
ginia more  clearly  seen  than  in  the  changed  estima- 
tion of  free  public  education  for  all  the  people  of  all 
classes  and  races. 

The  institutions  of  higher  learning  and  profes- 
sional work  before  the  war  deservedly  ranked 
amongst  the  first  in  the  nation.  These  have  been 
strengthened  in  their  endowment  and  equipment. 
Their  courses  of  study  have  been  enriched  and  popu- 
larized. A  very  significant  fact  in  the  educational 
life  of  a  state  is  the  establishment  of  schools  offering 
instruction  in  agriculture,  mechanics,  industry, 
teaching  and  commerce.  Agricultural,  mechanical, 
and  normal  schools  have  been  established  for  the 
training  of  both  races.  The  Hampton  Normal  and 
Agricultural  Institute  for  negroes  was  opened  in 
1868.  This  school  annually  enrolls  more  than  1,000 
students.  It  offers  instruction  in  agriculture  and  the 
trades.  Many  of  its  graduates  become  teachers. 
The  Virginia  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute  at 
Petersburg  annually  trains  the  heads  and  hands  of 
more  than  five  hundred  negroes.  The  Virginia  Poly- 
technic Institute  at  Blacksburg,  for  whites,  opened 
its  door  in  1872.  It  has  continually  grown  in  favor 
and  usefulness.  The  white  female  teachers  receive 
training  in  the  Farmville  Female  Normal  estab- 
lished in  1883.  Female  normal  and  industrial 
schools  are  now  being  established  at  Fredericksburg 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  141 

and  Harrisonburg.  William  and  Mary  College  was 
opened  as  a  normal  school  for  white  male  teachers 
in  1888.  Many  other  institutions  offer  agricultural, 
industrial,  commercial  and  normal  instruction. 

New  Industries  and  Wealth  of  State. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  Virginia  was  more  com- 
pletely exhausted,  economically,  than  any  other 
southern  state.  She  had  been  the  chief  theatre  of 
the  war  from  1860  to  1865.  More  than  five  hundred 
battles  and  skirmishes  had  been  fought  on  her  fields. 
The  valley  had  been  completely  devastated.  Other 
parts  of  the  state  had  suffered  almost  as  much. 
Owing  to  the  disordered  and  uncertain  condition  of 
society,  industries  revived  slowly.  Probably  the 
state  was  poorer  in  1870  than  in  1865.  At  the  close 
of  the  war  the  people  returned  to  agriculture  and 
stock-raising,  which  are  still  the  fundamental  occupa- 
tions in  Virginia.  Great  industries  have  developed, 
but  their  development  has  not  been  attended  by  a 
neglect  of  agriculture  as  has  been  the  case  in  New 
England.  Agriculture  has  grown  each  year  since 
about  1870. 

In  1907  the  Jamestown  Exposition,  commemorat- 
ing the  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  settle- 
ment of  the  state  was  held  on  Hampton  Eoads  oppo- 
site Old  Point,  about  ten  miles  from  Norfolk.  The 
variety  and  quality  of  the  exhibits  revealed  the  pro- 
gress made  by  Virginia  in  agriculture,  mining  and 
manufacturing.  The  industrial  side  of  the  Southern 
seaboard  states  was  also  well  displayed.  The  Expo- 
sition had  the  greatest  display  of  American  and 
foreign  warships  ever  held  in  American  waters.  All 
of  the  thirteen  original  states  were  represented.  A 
hall  of  history  filled  with  relics,  portraits  and  rare 
MSS.  told,  in  concrete,  the  history  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  United  States. 


142  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Market  gardening  in  the  tide- water  region  sprang 
into  importance  early  after  the  war.  In  1870  $1,048,- 
000  worth  of  vegetables  were  shipped  from  Norfolk. 
In  1860  the  total  value  of  all  market  gardens  in  the 
state  was  about  $500,000.  Peanuts  became  popular 
in  the  North  after  the  war.  Millions  of  bushels  of 
this  profitable  crop  are  now  grown.  Extensive  or- 
chards have  been  planted  in  the  Piedmont  and  South- 
west. Fruit  growing  is  now  a  profitable  business  in 
many  parts  of  the  state.  The  quality  of  live  stock 
has  been  improved.  Some  of  the  finest  cattle  and 
sheep  farms  in  the  United  States  are  now  in  Vir- 
ginia. The  export  cattle  of  the  Valley  and  Southwest 
are  unsurpassed. 

Virginia  is  excelled  by  no  state  of  equal  size  in 
the  abundance  and  variety  of  her  natural  resources. 
Coal,  iron,  lead,  zinc,  building  stones,  cement  mate- 
rial, and  clays  abound.  She  is  unequaled  in  the  va- 
riety of  her  mineral  waters.  A  large  part  of  her 
surface  is  covered  with  fine  forests.  The  streams  of 
all  parts  of  the  state  except  the  tide-water  afford 
abundant  water  power.  The  treasures  of  the  Chesa- 
peake Bay  and  the  tide-water  estuaries  are  inesti- 
mable. The  soil  and  climate  leave  little  to  be  de- 
sired. All  the  products  of  the  temperate  zone  flour- 
ish within  her  borders. 

During  the  last  forty  years  Virginia  has  neglected 
her  canals,  most  of  which  have  fallen  into  disuse. 
She  has  always  encouraged  railroad  building.  With- 
in the  last  twenty-five  years  railroads  have  pene- 
trated all  parts  of  the  state.  A  remarkable  develop- 
ment of  manufacturing  and  mining  has  resulted.  The 
quickening  influence  of  improved  transportation  fa- 
cilities has  been  felt  in  every  section. 

Before  the  war  Richmond  was  a  manufacturing 
and  commercial  centre.  In  1870  she  had  fallen  in 
the  value  of  her  products  to  about  one-half  that  of 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  143 

1860.  Her  commerce,  domestic  and  foreign,  was  al- 
most ruined.  The  new  Richmond  now  has  ship- 
yards, iron  works,  locomotive  works,  the  largest 
cedar  works  in  the  world,  the  largest  publishing 
house  in  the  South,  tobacco  factories,  and  a  great 
variety  of  manufacturing  industries  which  employ  a 
large  part  of  her  people. 

The  shipyard  at  Newport  News  is  one  of  the  larg- 
est in  the  world.  Seventeen  railways  now  have  their 
terminals  in  Norfolk.  Their  piers  are  amongst  the 
largest  on  the  coast.  Twenty-six  steamship  lines 
connect  the  city  with  home  and  foreign  ports.  Nor- 
folk is  the  largest  coaling  station  in  the  world.  Many 
other  cities  have  developed  great  industries.  Dan- 
ville has  cotton  mills,  and  is  the  largest  market  in 
the  world  for  bright,  loose  tobacco.  Eoanpke  has 
machine  shops;  Lynchburg,  tobacco  factories  and 
pipe  works.  Every  city  in  the  state  has  large  and 
profitable  manufacturing  establishments. 

The  state  has  many  rich  coal  deposits.  The  South- 
west coalfield,  including  Tazewell,  Russell,  Dicken- 
son,  Buchanan,  Wise,  Scott  and  Lee  counties,  is  by 
far  the  largest  and  most  productive.  The  coal-bear- 
ing area  of  that  section  comprises  nearly  2,000 
square  miles,  of  which  probably  80  per  cent,  is  now 
productive.  The  two  principal  fields  thus  far  de- 
veloped are  the  Pocahontas  and  the  Big  Stone  Gap. 
The  construction  of  the  New  River  branch  of  the 
Norfolk  and  Western  Railroad  through  southwest 
Virginia  in  1882,  opened  up  the  Pocahontas  coal  dis- 
trict. The  extension  of  the  same  road  through  the 
Clinch  Valley  gave  an  outlet  to  the  mines  of  Taze- 
well, Russell,  Dickenson  and  Wise  counties.  Four 
railroad  systems  now  penetrate  this  field.  Most  of 
the  coal  counties  will  soon  have  ample  railroad  facil- 
ities. The  Pocahontas  is  the  best  steam  coal  known. 
It  is  used  on  the  ocean  steamers  of  the  principal  na- 


144  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

tions.  It  produces  an  excellent  coke.  Virginia  ranks 
fourth  in  coke  production.  The  coal  interests  are 
rapidly  developing.  In  1881  only  50,000  tons  were 
mined  in  the  state;  in  1906,  4,275,815  tons.  Almost 
all  this  comes  from  the  mines  in  the  Southwest. 

Abundant  ores,  cheap  coal,  and  ample  transporta- 
tion facilities  have  given  the  iron  industry  a  phe- 
nomenal development  in  recent  years.  The  output 
of  pig-iron  is  yearly  increasing.  Many  rolling  mills 
have  been  established  within  the  last  few  years. 
Stoves,  cast-iron  piping,  car  wheels,  farming  tools, 
machinery  and  general  railway  supplies  are  pro- 
duced. Lumbering  is  one  of  the  leading  industries 
in  many  parts  of  the  state.  The  new  railroads  have 
made  accessible  large  tracts  of  practically  virgin 
timber  lands.  Large  quantities  of  forest  products 
are  shipped  to  the  North  or  exported  to  Europe.  Fur- 
niture factories  and  other  wood- working  establish- 
ments are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  state,  and  are 
rapidly  increasing  in  the  capital  invested  and  the 
value  of  the  output. 

Much  of  the  crude  negro  labor  has  drifted  away 
from  the  farm  and  has  been  absorbed  in  coal  and 
iron  mining  and  grading  railroads.  Virginia  has 
made  an  earnest  effort  since  1865  to  induce  Euro- 
pean immigrants  to  come  to  the  state.  In  this  she 
has  been  only  partially  successful.  Very  few  un- 
skilled foreigners  have  come  to  Virginia.  The  few 
that  have  come  have  been  of  the  upper  class,  or 
skilled  artisans. 

Contrast  of  Old   and  New  Economic   and  Social  Conditions. 

An  economic  and  social  system  passed  away  with 
slavery.  The  old  forms  of  industry  and  social  life 
could  not  be  restored  in  a  large  part  of  the  state. 
East  of  the  Blue  Eidge  slavery  had  entered  so  deeply 
into  the  warp  and  woof  of  life  that  immediate  eman- 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  145 

cipation  shattered  social  and  economic  institutions. 
For  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  people 
in  the  oldest  and  most  populous  sections  had  been 
accustomed  to  slave  labor  with  all  its  attendant  cir- 
cumstances and  consequences.  The  strangeness  of 
the  situation  at  the  close  of  the  war  bewildered  both 
whites  and  blacks.  The  whites  knew  little  of  the 
dignity  and  possibilities  of  free  common  labor.  The 
blacks  had  less  appreciation  of  the  responsibilities 
and  duties  of  freemen.  Under  these  conditions  in- 
dustry and  trade  revived  slowly.  A  new  economic 
and  social  life  slowly  emerged  from  the  chaos.  Both 
races  in  time  adjusted  themselves  to  new  conditions. 
A  fairly  efficient  system  of  hired  labor  was  devel- 
oped. Many  of  the  negroes  became  small  farmers 
and  renters.  The  peculiar  grace  and  form  of  old 
Virginia's  social  life  passed  away. 

In  the  Valley  and  the  Southwest  slavery  had  ex- 
erted comparatively  little  influence,  economically  and 
socially.  Negroes,  bond  and  free,  were  only  about 
15  per  cent,  of  the  population.  The  employers  of 
labor  were  more  accustomed  to  free  labor  and  its 
worth  than  were  the  planters  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 
Society  and  industry  were  not  based  on  slavery  as 
in  some  parts  of  the  South ;  therefore  little  social  or 
economic  disturbance  resulted  in  these  sections  from 
the  destruction  of  slavery. 

The  Valley  and  Southwest  had  each  been  plun- 
dered and  wasted  during  the  war,  but  the  old  frame- 
work of  society  remained  virtually  intact.  The  social 
upheaval  had  not  so  radically  unsettled  industry  and 
social  life  as  in  the  other  divisions  of  the  state.  Not- 
withstanding the  waste  and  loss  of  war  the  people 
soon  adjusted  themselves  to  the  changed  conditions. 
The  adjustment  was  slow  and  painful  in  the  other 
sections. 

Vol.  1—10. 


146  THE  HISTOEY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

The  old  Virginia  plantations  were  little  industrial 
communities  in  which  the  division  of  labor  system 
was  adopted.  On  each  large  plantation  there  were 
blacksmiths,  tanners,  harness  and  shoe  makers,  car- 
penters, bricklayers,  masons,  spinners,  weavers  and 
tailors.  In  consequence  of  this  there  was  little  in- 
centive to  establish  shops  or  factories  to  supply  the 
planters  with  such  goods  as  their  own  artisans  could 
produce.  There  were  few  white  artisans  working 
for  wages.  Shops  or  factories,  producing  goods  for 
sale,  were  rare  in  the  planting  sections. 

The  destruction  of  the  old  plantation  life  scattered 
the  plantation  artisans.  The  household  industries 
decayed  both  on  the  plantation  and  the  small  farm. 
To  take  their  place  shops  or  factories  sprang  up  and 
a  large  number  of  artisans  began  to  work  for  wages. 
The  growth  of  manufacturing  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  facts  in  Virginia's  history  in  the  last  twen- 
ty-five years.  Very  few  people,  white  or  black,  in 
Virginia  now  use  furniture,  farming  tools,  harness, 
iron  goods,  clothes,  or  shoes  made  by  their  own  house- 
holds. 

In  the  sections  where  blacks  were  once  the  chief 
artisans,  whites  have  taken  their  place.  Few  young- 
negroes  now  become  workmen.  Probably  there  are 
now  fewer  black  handicraftsmen  than  in  1860. 

The  antebellum  aristocracy  dwelt  in  the  country. 
Land  and  birth  were  the  foundations  of  social  emi- 
nence. The  rural  gentry  was,  in  a  large  measure, 
unable  to  adjust  itself  to  the  changes  brought  about 
by  the  war.  The  plantation  life  was  broken  up.  In 
many  cases  the  plantation  itself  came  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  former  overseer  or  tenant.  The  rural 
gentry  moved  to  the  towns  and  cities  and  took  up 
professions  or  went  into  business.  The  old  baronial 
life  is  at  present  almost  unknown  in  the  country  dis- 
tricts where  it  once  flourished.  A  part  of  the  refine- 


VIRGINIA  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.  147 

merit  of  the  old  days  survives  in  the  towns.  West 
of  the  Blue  Ridge  the  social  framework  was  less  se- 
riously shattered,  and  the  life  of  all  classes  re- 
mained about  what  it  had  been  before. 

Slavery  is  unfavorable  to  small  holdings  of  land, 
intensive  cultivation,  and  diversification  of  crops; 
and  favorable  to  large  holdings  of  land,  extensive 
cultivation,  and  a  single  crop  like  tobacco  or  cotton. 
The  plantation  system  with  its  corps  of  slaves  ab- 
sorbed the  land  and  rendered  it  difficult  for  a  man 
with  small  capital  to  become  a  landholder.  The  de- 
struction of  slavery  crippled  the  plantation  system. 
Many  of  the  plantations  were  divided  and  sold  to 
former  tenants  or  overseers.  In  this  way  the  num- 
ber of  landowners  was  increased.  Intensive  culti- 
vation and  diversification  of  crops  have  resulted 
from  the  decay  of  the  plantation  system  and  the  di- 
vision of  the  land  into  small  farms. 

In  some  sections  the  war  set  the  poor  whites  free. 
They  lost  little  or  nothing  by  the  war  and  gained  in 
many  ways.  Their  importance  economically,  socially 
and  politically  was  greatly  increased. 

The  plantation  was  a  social  settlement  for  the  up- 
lift of  the  negroes.  Their  health  was  carefully 
guarded.  They  suffered  little  from  tuberculosis, 
typhoid,  and  venereal  diseases.  There  was  no  drunk- 
enness. Lunacy  was  almost  unknown.  They  were 
given  manual  and  moral  training.  Their  masters  and 
white  ministers  gave  them  careful  religious  instruc- 
tion. Many  of  them  attended  the  white  churches. 
Negro  meetings,  noisy  and  turbulent,  were  held  by 
preachers  of  their  own  race.  There  was  virtually  no 
race  hatred.  The  blacks  were  considered  a  race,  in 
every  respect,  inferior  to  the  whites. 

Tuberculosis,  typhoid,  and  venereal  diseases  are 
making  terrible  inroads  upon  the  freedmen.  Drunk- 
enness and  lunacy  are  common.  Few  young  negroes 


148  THE  HISTORY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

are  becoming  artisans.  They  now  have  separate 
church  organizations  and  fail  to  receive  the  sound 
moral  and  spiritual  instruction  they  formerly  re- 
ceived from  the  whites.  There  is  less  cordiality  be- 
tween the  races  now  than  there  was  fifty  years  ago. 
Yet  the  negroes  have  made  some  progress.  In  1900 
they  owned  nearly  one  million  acres  of  land  in  Vir- 
ginia. Illiteracy  is  being  reduced.  The  leading 
schools  for  negroes  are  giving  more  attention  to  in- 
dustrial training  than  formerly.  They  are  giving 
less  attention  to  politics  and  are  striving  to  become 
economically  independent.  The  colored  ministers  of 
the  Gospel  are  improving  both  in  character  and 
preparation  for  their  work. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: — A  vary,  Myrta  L.:  Dixie  after  the  War;  Boyd,  C.  R.: 
Resources  of  Southwest  Virginia;  Bruce,  P.  A. :  The  Rise  of  the  New  South, 
and  The  Plantation  Negro  as  a  Freeman;  Dunning,  W.  A.:  The  Civil  War 
and  Reconstruction;  Eckenrode,  H.  J. :  The  Political  History  of  Virginia 
during  the  Reconstruction;  Fleming,  W.  L. :  Documents  Relating  to  Recon- 
struction; Herbert,  H.  H.:  Why  the  Solid  South;  Hotchkiss,  Jed:  Sum- 
mary of  Virginia  (1876);  McConnell,  J.  P.:  Negroes  and  Their  Treatment 
in  Virginia  (1865-67);  Page,  T.  N.:  The  Old  Dominion;  Ruffin,  F.  G.: 
The  Negro  as  a  Political  Factor;  Stuart,  A.  H.  H.:  The  Committee  of  Nine; 
Watson,  T.  L.:  Mineral  Resources  of  Virginia;  Whitehead,  Thomas:  Vir- 
ginia Handbook  (1893). 

JOHN  PRESTON  MCCONNELL, 

Professor  of  History  and  Political  Science,  Emory  and  Henry 
Cottege. 


THE   HISTORY   OF   MARYLAND 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND,  1608-1776. 

Geography  of  Maryland. 

'ALFWAY  up  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the 
United  States  lies  the  mouth  of  the  Ches- 
apeake Bay,  almost  as  much  a  river  as 
bay,  and  from  it,  on  either  side,  branch  off 
tidal  estuaries,  almost  as  much  bays  as 
rivers,  which  give  navigable  access  to  the  country 
to  a  considerable  distance.  The  coastal  plain, 
through  which  these  rivers  take  their  course,  is  level 
and  productive  of  cereals  and  vegetables,  while  the 
waters  of  bay  and  river  teem  with  fish,  crabs,  and 
oysters.  West  of  this  plain  lies  the  rolling  country 
which  the  geologists  call  the  Piedmont  Plateau,  be- 
cause it  lies  at  the  foot  of  the  Appalachian  Moun- 
tains. This  Piedmont  region  is  a  broken,  hilly 
country,  crossed  by  the  Potomac  River  and  by  the 
Patapsco,  which  runs  with  rapid  current  down 
through  the  land.  West  of  the  Catoctin  Mountain  we 
find  the  Appalachian  Mountain  Region,  filled  with 
mineral  wealth,  and  subdivided  into  three  parts, 
with  fertile  valleys  between  them.  The  three  parts 
are  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  Appalachian  mountains 
proper  in  Alleghany  county,  and  the  Alleghany 
chain  in  Garrett  county.  Some  of  the  streams  in  the 
last  county  are  a  part  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  sys- 
tem, but  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  state  lies  on 
the  Atlantic  side  of  the  watershed. 

149 


150  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

Prior  to  the  attainment  of  independence  by  Mary- 
land, the  Appalachian  region  had  only  begun  to  be 
settled  and  we  shall  find  our  chief  interest  to  lie  in 
the  tidewater  counties  of  the  Chesapeake.  At  pres- 
ent the  state  has  an  area  of  12,210  square  miles,  of 
which  9,860  are  land,  the  greater  part  of  this  land 
lying  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay, 
upon  which  portion  of  the  state  over  five-sixths  of  its 
inhabitants  live ;  but  originally  the  area  of  Maryland 
was  considerably  greater  than  it  is  at  present.  When 
Charles  I.,  king  of  England  and  husband  of  Hen- 
rietta Maria,  from  whom  Terra  Mariae,  or  Maryland, 
took  its  name,  gave  to  Cecil  Calvert,  Second  Lord 
Baltimore  in  the  Peerage  of  Ireland,  a  patent,  or 
charter,  for  this  new  province  of  his  realm,  much 
more  ample  bounds  were  conferred  upon  the  Pro- 
prietary of  the  Palatinate  than  either  he  or  his  suc- 
cessors ever  reduced  to  their  possession.  The  limits 
of  the  domain  began  at  Watkins'  Point,  on  the  east- 
ern shore  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  ran  thence  due 
east  to  the  Atlantic  ocean.  North  of  this  line  should 
be  Maryland's  territory,  south  of  it  should  remain 
part  of  Virginia,  from  which  Maryland  was  carved. 
The  boundary  of  Baltimore's  province  then  ran 
along  the  Delaware  Bay  to  the  fortieth  degree  of 
north  latitude,  and  westward  along  that  parallel  to 
the  meridian  of  longitude  which  passed  through  the 
first  fountain  of  the  Potomac  River.  Descending 
that  meridian  to  the  river,  the  line  runs  along  the 
farther  or  south  side  of  the  river  to  a  place  called 
Cinquack,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac,  whence  a 
straight  line  to  Watkins'  Point  completed  the  pro- 
vincial limits. 

Lord  Baltimore's  Grant. 

Into  this  princely  heritage,  George  Calvert,  the 
first  Lord  Baltimore,  had  looked,  after  he  had  been 
discouraged  by  his  unsuccessful  effort  to  found  the 


LORD  BALTIMORE. 


THE  PROVINCE  OP  MARYLAND.  151 

colony  of  Avalon  on  the  bleak  and  forbidding  shores 
of  Newfoundland.  He  had  found  the  unoccupied 
shores  of  the  Chesapeake  so  attractive  that  he  asked 
the  king  that  they  be  granted  him  and,  receiving  the 
royal  favor,  would  himself  have  been  the  first  Lord 
Proprietary  had  he  not  died  shortly  before  the  royal 
charter  was  ready  to  pass  the  seals.  Spaniards  had 
probably  entered  the  Bay  a  century  and  more  before 
the  settlement  of  Maryland,  but  the  first  satisfactory 
account  of  its  shores  and  map  of  the  country  are 
those  prepared  by  Captain  John  Smith,  who  explored 
the  waters  of  the  Chesapeake  in  1608,  the  year  after 
the  settlement  of  Jamestown.  He  found  here  and 
there  a  small  village  of  Indians  of  the  Algonquin 
stock,  who  hunted  in  the  forests  and  cultivated  maize, 
tobacco  and  potatoes  on  little  clearings  along  the 
river  banks.  In  their  bark  houses,  good  stores  of 
furs  were  kept,  which  the  Indians  willingly  bartered 
for  manufactured  wares  offered  by  the  English.  In 
general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  Indians  of  Maryland 
received  fair  treatment  from  the  English,  and  this 
was  especially  so  of  the  Piscataways  and  the  Nanti- 
cokes,  the  chief  Algonquin  tribes  on  the  two  shores  of 
the  Bay.  The  difficulties  and  wars  which  occurred 
were  chiefly  with  the  stalwart  and  fierce  Susquehan- 
nocks  who  lived  in  the  northern  part  of  the  province, 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  which  bears  their  name. 
These  Indians  were  of  the  Iroquois  stock,  and,  after 
they  were  subjugated  and  incorporated  with  the  Five 
Nations,  they  induced  the  Senecas  to  come  down  in 
raids  against  the  frontier  settlements  and  against 
the  peaceable  Patuxents  and  Piscataways.  Gradual- 
ly the  Indian  inhabitants  of  the  province  disap- 
peared, and  but  few  were  left  after  the  migration  to 
the  north  of  the  Nanticokes  about  the  year  1750. 

After  Smith's  expeditions,  other  ones  followed,  and 
the  fur  trade  from  the  north  to  Virginia  became  a 


152  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

well-established  enterprise.  The  Indians  also  sold 
their  surplus  stock  of  maize  to  the  Virginians.  The 
timber  of  the  land  was  early  found  useful  for  pipe 
staves  and  other  purposes.  Foremost  among  the 
traders  on  the  Chesapeake  was  William  Claiborne, 
Baltimore's  life-long  enemy,  who  struggled  against 
the  effectiveness  of  the  Maryland  charter  for  over 
forty  years  after  it  was  granted.  After  Claiborne 
had  been  in  Virginia  for  eight  years  or  so,  engaged 
in  trading  with  the  Indians,  he  associated  himself 
with  a  firm  of  London  merchants,  and  later,  in  May, 
1631,  he  obtained  from  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
Scotland  a  commission,  authorizing  him  and  his  as- 
sociates to  trade  in  all  parts  of  New  England  and 
Nova  Scotia  wherein  no  trading  monopoly  had  been 
granted.  Sailing  up  the  Chesapeake  with  this  com- 
mission, Claiborne  planted  the  Isle  of  Kent  on  the 
eastern  shore,  placing  there,  on  Aug.  17,  1631,  a 
trading  factory  with  about  twenty  or  thirty  men. 
From  Chisquack,  in  the  Northern  Neck  of  Virginia, 
and  Kent  Island,  a  delegate  sat  in  the  Virginia 
House  of  Burgesses,  and  Claiborne  was  a  member  of 
the  Virginia  Council.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
that  the  Virginians  opposed  the  Maryland  charter, 
which  gave  Baltimore,  a  Roman  Catholic,  two-thirds 
of  their  fine  bay  and  cut  them  off  from  the  profitable 
Indian  trade  to  the  north,  which  they  were  carry- 
ing on. 

Navigation  was  slow  and  uncertain  in  the  Seven- 
teenth century,  when  it  took  from  a  month  to  three 
months  for  a  sailing  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlantic,  and 
it  was  some  time  after  Baltimore  had  received  the 
patent  for  his  province  (on  June  20, 1632),  that  news 
of  this  event  reached  America.  Not  until  Nov.  22, 
1633,  did  the  Proprietary's  first  expedition  set  forth 
under  the  command  of  his  young  brother,  Leonard, 
to  settle  the  new  province.  The  fact  that  Maryland 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MAEYLAND..  153 

bore  from  the  first  the  dignified  title  of  province  has 
always  been  a  source  of  pride  to  its  inhabitants. 
The  charter  was  modelled  on  that  of  Avalon,  granted 
to  the  first  Lord  Baltimore  some  years  before,  and 
gave  Cecil  Calvert  a  country  hitherto  uncultivated 
in  the  parts  of  America  partly  occupied  by  savages. 
Over  that  country,  which  he  was  destined  never  to 
behold,  he  should  rule  with  as  extensive  privileges  as 
the  Bishop  of  Durham  held  within  the  limits  of  his 
see,  and  for  the  province,  which  he  held  in  free  and 
common  socage,  Baltimore  paid  yearly  two  Indian 
arrows.  He  was  given  power  to  make  laws  "with 
the  advice,  assent,  and  approbation  of  the  freemen, 
or  of  their  delegates."  At  the  first,  he  tried  to  use 
this  power  in  its  highest  form,  by  submitting  laws 
to  a  mass-meeting  of  freemen  coming  together  in 
person,  or  by  proxy,  and  by  rejecting  those  in  the  en- 
actment of  which  the  freemen  had  taken  the  initiative 
but  gradually  the  freemen  grew  too  numerous,  too 
widely  scattered  and  too  powerful  for  this  arrange- 
ment to  continue.  So,  after  about  the  year  1650,  a 
delegated  body  of  freemen  and  the  Governor's  Coun- 
cil, as  bicameral  legislature,  took  the  place  of  the 
primary  assembly,  while  even  as  early  as  1638  the 
Proprietary  gave  up  the  claim  of  the  right  to  initiate 
legislation.  All  Englishmen  were  permitted  by  the 
charter  to  emigrate  to  Maryland,  and  after  their  ar- 
rival there,  both  they  and  their  descendants  had  the 
right  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  Englishmen. 

Religious  Toleration. 

The  Virginians  tried  to  prevent  Baltimore  from 
taking  possession  of  the  country  granted  him,  and 
the  expense  of  the  early  expeditions  nearly  impover- 
ished the  Proprietary,  but  neither  then,  nor  in  later 
years,  when  deprived  of  his  province  by  force,  did 
Cecil  Calvert  deviate  from  his  persistent  effort  to 


154  THE  HISTOHY  OF  MARYLAND. 

secure  for  his  posterity  so  valuable  a  possession.  He 
had  to  remain  in  England  to  the  end  of  his  life,  so 
as  to  ward  off  one  threatened  danger  after  another, 
and  his  policy,  as  shown  by  his  letters,  was  that  of  a 
calm,  shrewd,  unenthusiastic,  fair-minded,  far-see- 
ing man.  He  was  a  faithful  member  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  which  his  father  had  joined,  and  he  wished 
to  provide  an  asylum  for  his  coreligionists  in  his 
Palatinate,  but  he  was  so  wise  that  he  foresaw  that 
a  grant  of  any  especial  privileges  to  Catholics,  or 
any  establishment  of  that  church  in  the  province, 
would  lead  to  a  speedy  forfeiture  of  the  patent.  He 
clearly  wished  the  establishment  of  no  other  church. 
So  from  the  first  embarking  in  the  enterprise  of  the 
settlement  of  Maryland,  he  gave  the  world  the  ex- 
ample of  a  ruler  who  separated  church  from  state, 
and  directed  his  colonists  to  show  toleration  to  all 
Christians,  allowing  freedom  of  worship  in  any 
Christian  form.  That  these  colonists  might  have 
religious  counsel  and  leadership,  he  sent  two  Jesuit 
priests  with  the  first  expedition,  to  one  of  whom, 
Father  Andrew  White,  a  man  of  marked  devotion  to 
his  work,  we  owe  our  knowledge  of  the  voyage  of 
these  first  adventurers.  The  Jesuit  order  continued 
in  Maryland  during  the  whole  of  the  provincial  pe- 
riod as  the  chief  religious  agency  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  their  conscientious  zeal  and  fidelity 
make  the  Maryland  mission's  history  one  of  the  fin- 
est in  the  records  of  the  order.  Their  chief  service 
was  in  rearing  a  number  of  native  Jesuit  priests, 
who  were  largely  responsible  for  the  American  char- 
acter of  their  church  in  the  United  States. 

Leonard  Calvert,  the  first  Lieutenant-General  and 
Governor  of  Maryland,  was  only  twenty-eight  years 
old  when  he  set  sail  for  the  province.  He  was  a  sin- 
cere, straightforward  man,  of  some  ability ;  but  with 
the  fatal  failing  of  his  family  of  being  unable  to  read 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  155 

men  and  to  choose  the  proper  agents  to  carry  out 
his  purposes.  With  him,  as  commissioners,  came 
Jerome  Hawley,  who  soon  left  Maryland  for  Vir- 
ginia, and  Thomas  Cornwallis,  who  was  to  be  the 
military  leader  of  the  new  colony,  while  among  a 
number  of  gentlemen  in  the  expedition  was  George 
Calvert,  another  younger  brother  of  Baltimore,  who, 
like  many  others,  was  unable  to  stand  the  seasoning 
process  of  acclimatization  and  soon  died.  Most  of 
the  gentlemen  were  Roman  Catholics;  but  many  of 
the  yeomen  and  servants  were  Protestants,  and  it  is 
probable  that  from  the  beginning  the  majority  of 
the  settlers  in  Maryland  paid  no  religious  allegiance 
to  the  Pope. 

Settlement  of  Maryland. 

The  expedition  sailed  in  two  vessels,  the  Ark  and 
the  Dove,  names  of  good  omen  to  those  who  were  to 
settle  a  new  world,  and  took  the  usual  southern 
course  through  the  West  Indies,  which  made  the 
voyage  so  long  that  they  did  not  arrive  in  Virginia 
until  Feb.  24, 1633.  There  the  governor  was  friendly, 
but  the  settlers  were  so  hostile  that  they  soon  after- 
wards revolted,  seized  him  and  sent  him  to  England, 
largely  because  of  his  friendliness  to  Calvert.  The 
tiresome  voyage  was  over  and  the  settlers  saw  the 
"most  delightful  water  between  two  sweet  lands." 
From  the  enthusiastic  reports  sent  him,  Baltimore 
caused  to  be  prepared  in  England  in  1634  and  1635, 
two  pamphlets,  in  the  nature  of  prospectuses  to  in- 
vite settlers,  which  Relations  are  the  earliest  printed 
accounts  of  the  province. 

Leonard  Calvert  remembered  his  brother's  wise 
injunction  to  have  as  little  as  possible  to  do  with  the 
Virginians  during  the  first  year,  and  soon  sailed  up 
the  bay  and  entered  the  Potomac  Eiver.  Landing 
on  St.  Clement's,  now  called  Blackiston's  Island,  on 
"Our  Blessed  Lady's  Day  in  Lent,"  March  25,  1634, 


156  THE  HISTOEY  OF  MARYLAND. 

the  new  year's  day  of  the  calendar  then  used,  he 
"took  solemn  possession  of  the  country  for  our 
Saviour  and  for  our  sovereign  Lord,  the  King  of 
England."  Calvert  then  pacified  the  fears  of  the 
aborigines  and  bought  from  them,  through  the  ad- 
vice of  Captain  Fleet,  an  old  Indian  trader,  the  In- 
dian town  of  Yaocomico,  which  was  renamed  St. 
Mary's.  A  Dutch  settlement  on  the  Delaware  had 
been  destroyed  by  Indians,  and  Claiborne's  factory 
on  Kent  Island  seems  to  have  been  the  only  other 
one  within  the  province  at  this  time.  Calvert  had 
instructions  to  use  Claiborne  courteously  and  permit 
him  to  proceed  in  his  plantation,  if  he  would  acknowl- 
edge that  he  owed  fidelity  to  Baltimore;  but  this 
acknowledgment  was  sturdily  refused,  while  Clai- 
borne's difficulties  increased  through  differences 
with  his  London  partners.  Thus  petty  warfare 
existed  between  the  settlers  of  Kent  Island  and  those 
of  St.  Mary's  for  three  years,  and  led  to  a  sort  of 
naval  battle  on  the  Pocomoke  in  1635.  Finally, 
Claiborne  went  to  England  in  1637,  leaving  the  island 
in  charge  of  Capt.  George  Evelin.  The  latter  was 
friendly  to  Baltimore  and,  unsuccessfully,  endeav- 
ored to  induce  the  settlers  on  the  island  to  accept 
Baltimore  as  their  ruler.  Finally,  in  February, 
1638.  Governor  Calvert  led  an  expedition  in  person 
against  Kent  Island  and  overcame  the  opposition 
there  without  much  difficulty. 

Government  of  the  Province. 

After  the  settlers  had  been  in  Maryland  nearly  a 
year,  Calvert  called  an  assembly  of  the  people,  which 
met  in  February,  1635,  but  its  proceedings  are  lost 
and  its  acts  were  vetoed  by  the  Proprietary,  so  that 
the  second  assembly,  in  January,  1638,  is  the  first 
one  of  which  we  have  definite  information.  None 
of  the  bills  introduced  therein  were  placed  upon  the 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  157 

statute  book,  except  one  for  the  attainder  of  Clai- 
borne,  who  shortly  thereafter  failed  in  England,  in 
an  attempt  to  secure  restitution  of  Kent  Island. 
The  Assembly  also  acted  as  a  court  of  law  and  tried 
and  condemned  to  death  for  piracy  Thomas  Smith, 
one  of  Claiborne's  followers.  Towards  the  close  of 
1638,  Leonard  Calvert  received  a  letter  from  his 
brother,  yielding  his  claim  to  the  legislative  initi- 
ative and  authorizing  the  governor  to  assent  to  such 
laws  as  he  * '  shall  think  fit  and  necessary  and  as  shall 
be  approved  by  the  major  part  of  the  freemen,  or 
their  deputies."  As  a  result,  a  representative  as- 
sembly of  one  house  was  held  in  February,  1639, 
which  adopted  a  comprehensive  temporary  act  to 
"  endure  to  the  end  of  the  next  General  Assembly, 
or  for  three  years,  if  there  be  no  Assembly  within 
that  time."  This  policy  of  temporary  statute  mak- 
ing was  followed  throughout  the  whole  provincial 
period  and,  although  it  involved  much  expenditure 
of  time  and  caused  a  bulky  statute  book,  it  ensured 
fairly  frequent  sessions  of  the  Assembly  and,  in  such 
matters  as  the  payment  of  officers  whose  remunera- 
tion was  in  the  shape  of  fees,  it  also  ensured  a  read- 
justment of  the  rates  from  time  to  time. 

By  New  Year's  Day,  Old  Style,  1639,  the  province 
had  been  governed  for  five  years  by  Leonard  Calvert. 
He  had  settled  St.  Mary's  and  had  seen  the  settlers 
spreading  out  into  various  hundreds,  while  some 
men  had  established  manors  under  grants  from  the 
Lord  Proprietary.  Indentured  white  servants  were 
cultivating  most  of  the  land  which  the  Proprietary's 
Conditions  of  Plantations  had  granted  to  the  settlers 
on  payment  of  an  annual  quit  rent,  but  negro  slaves 
had  been  introduced,  and  the  colonists,  ceasing  to  be 
dependent  upon  the  Indians  for  maize,  which  was 
beginning  to  be  raised  in  considerable  quantity  by 
the  English,  were  also  ceasing  to  be  dependent  upon 


158  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

the  fur  trade,  and  were  taking  up  the  cultivation  of 
tobacco,  which  became  the  great  staple  product  of 
the  province  and  the  medium  of  exchange  in  all 
transactions  between  man  and  man.  The  tobacco 
period  lasted  until  Maryland  became  a  state,  but  the 
cereal  products,  wheat  and  corn,  were  gradually 
thrusting  tobacco  from  its  predominance  during  the 
last  years  of  provincial  history.  Calvert  had  also 
subdued  Kent  Island  and  established  amicable  rela- 
tions with  the  Indians  and  the  Virginians,  and  Clai- 
borne's  pretensions  to  any  part  of  the  province  had 
been  disallowed.  Though  the  beginnings  of  Mary- 
land were  complete,  the  troubles  of  the  Proprietary's 
officers  were  far  from  ended,  and  a  period  is  now 
approached  in  which  there  were  troubles  with  the 
Jesuits,  who  vainly  claimed  from  Baltimore  that 
same  liberty  of  being  governed  by  canon  law  only, 
usual  in  other  countries  with  Roman  Catholic  lords, 
and  to  be  freed  from  taxes,  which  claims  led  Balti- 
more to  send  out  secular  priests  for  a  time  and  to 
stand  firmly  for  the  supremacy  of  the  civil  power  in 
the  state. 

Leonard  Calvert  went  to  England  in  1642,  leaving 
Giles  Brent  in  his  room,  and  came  back  two  years 
later  with  a  royal  commission  empowering  him  to 
seize  ships  of  the  London  merchants  who  adhered  to 
the  Parliamentary  side  in  the  English  Civil  War. 
Although  he  seems  not  to  have  used  the  com- 
mission, it  gave  the  opposition  an  excuse  for  ac- 
tion, and  turbulent  times  were  felt  in  Maryland. 
Claiborne  came  back  and  tried  to  recover  Kent 
Island.  Richard  Ingle,  a  pronounced  parliamenta- 
rian, who  had  previously  visited  the  province  several 
times,  and  had  been  accused  of  making  treasonable 
speeches,  came  to  Virginia  with  his  ship  in  Febru- 
ary, 1645,  seized  a  Dutch  merchantman  in  the  Ches- 
apeake, and  with  the  two  vessels  terrorized  the  pro- 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  159 

vince  so  that  Calvert  fled  to  Virginia.  During  this 
"plundering  year"  Ingle  ranged  about  the  province, 
ungratefully  robbed  Cornwallis,  seized  the  property 
of  the  Jesuits  and  carried  them  to  England  when 
he  returned  thither.  Calvert  was  not  restored  in 
the  control  of  the  province  until  the  autumn  of  1646, 
and  Kent  Island  did  not  return  to  its  allegiance  to 
the  Proprietary  until  April,  1647.  Shortly  after- 
wards, on  June  9, 1647,  Governor  Calvert  died,  mak- 
ing Mrs.  Margaret  Brent,  a  woman  of  strong  mind, 
his  executrix,  with  the  injunction,  "take  all  and  pay 
all."  He  named  Thomas  Greene  as  governor,  but 
the  Proprietary  a  year  later  substituted  William 
Stone,  a  Protestant,  who  brought  into  Maryland,  as 
immigrants,  a  considerable  number  of  Puritans  from 
Virginia,  in  which  province  they  had  failed  to  find 
religious  freedom.  With  the  commission  for  Stone, 
the  Proprietary  sent  a  brief  code  of  sixteen  laws, 
which  he  desired  the  General  Assembly  to  enact  for 
the  province.  There  was  opposition  to  some  of  these 
laws,  but  the  most  famous  of  them,  the  "Act  con- 
cerning religion,"  was  amended  and  then  passed  in 
April,  1649.  In  later  years,  Charles,  third  Lord  Bal- 
timore, stated  the  purpose  and  content  of  this  fa- 
mous statute  to  be  that  the  province  might  "have  a 
general  toleration  settled  there  by  a  law,  by  which 
all  of  all  sorts,  who  professed  Christianity  in  gen- 
eral, might  be  at  liberty  to  worship  God  in  such  man- 
ner as  was  most  agreeable  to  their  respective  judg- 
ments and  consciences,  without  being  subject  to  any 
penalties  whatsoever  for  their  doing  so,  provided  the 
civil  peace  were  preserved.  And,  that  for  the  secur- 
ing the  civil  peace  and  preventing  all  heats  and 
feuds,  which  were,  generally,  observed  to  happen 
amongst  such  as  differ  in  opinions,  upon  occasion  of 
reproachful  nicknames  and  reflecting  upon  each 
other's  opinions,  it  might,  by  the  same  law,  be  made 


160  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

penal  to  give  any  offense  in  that  kind."  The  prac- 
tice of  the  province  was  even  more  liberal  than  the 
statute,  for  Jews  dwelt  there  without  serious  mo- 
lestation. The  Puritans  made  their  settlement  about 
the  banks  of  the  Severn  River  near  where  Annapolis 
now  stands,  and  their  coming  caused  the  erection  of 
a  third  county  for  them,  under  the  name  of  Anne 
Arundel,  the  wife  of  the  Proprietary.  In  the  same 
year  the  coming  of  the  Brooke  family  led  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  fourth  county  on  the  Patuxent, 
which,  with  a  change  of  name  and  of  boundaries,  be- 
came Calvert  county  in  1654. 

Maryland,   1654-1676. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  Commonwealth  in 
England,  five  Parliamentary  Commissioners  were 
appointed  to  reduce  Virginia  from  her  allegiance  to 
the  crown,  and  their  commission,  by  craft  or  acci- 
dent, was  extended  to  "all  the  plantations  within 
Chesapeake  Bay."  Two  of  these  commissioners 
were  Claiborne  and  Bennett,  the  head  of  the  Puritan 
party  in  Virginia ;  the  other  three  were  Englishmen. 
Only  one  of  the  latter,  however,  arrived  in  America, 
and  he,  with  the  two  Virginians,  came  to  Maryland 
and  seized  the  government  in  1652.  So  great  had 
been  Baltimore's  hatred  for  Claiborne  that  he  had 
exempted  him  and  Ingle  from  the  general  pardoning 
power  conferred  on  Stone  in  his  gubernatorial  com- 
mission. It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the 
commissioners  insisted,  in  a  highhanded  and  illegal 
manner,  that  writs  should  henceforth  run  in  the 
name  of  the  keepers  of  the  liberty  of  England,  al- 
though the  charter  provided  that  writs  should  run 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Proprietary.  Stone  refused 
to  obey  these  orders  and  was  removed  from  office, 
but  yielded  three  months  later  and  was  restored. 
For  two  years  this  modus  vivendi  continued.  Then 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  161 

Stone  again  ordered  the  writs  to  run  in  the  Pro- 
prietary's name,  and  the  Puritans  of  Providence, 
as  they  called  their  settlement  on  the  Severn,  rose  in 
revolt  and  compelled  Stone  to  resign.  Rebuked  by 
Baltimore  for  yielding  so  easily,  Stone  gathered  a 
force  of  men  and  a  battle  between  the  two  parties 
took  place  in  March,  1655,  in  which  the  Proprietary's 
party  was  routed  and  Stone  taken  prisoner.  From 
July,  1654,  to  1657,  the  provincial  government  was 
carried  on  by  a  body  of  commissioners,  appointed 
by. Bennett  and  Claiborne,  acting  under  that  com- 
mission to  which  reference  has  been  made.  These 
commissioners  served  as  executive,  council,  provin- 
cial court  and  Upper  House  of  Assembly.  In  1656, 
the  English  authorities  confirmed  Baltimore 's  rights 
to  his  province,  and  after  some  delay  and  negotiation 
with  the  Puritan  leaders,  his  authority  was  restored 
on  March  23,  1657,  with  a  general  amnesty  and  a 
confirmation  of  the  toleration  act  which  the  Puri- 
tans had  repealed.  So  complete  was  the  pacification 
that  some  of  the  Puritan  commissioners  sat  in  the 
General  Assembly  of  1659.  The  restored  Propri- 
etary government  was  under  the  direction  of  Capt. 
Josias  Fendall,  an  energetic  man,  who  proceeded  to 
organize  the  militia  and  thus  came  into  conflict  with 
the  Quakers,  who  were  becoming  an  important  ele- 
ment in  the  province,  and  whose  religious  principles 
would  not  allow  them  to  bear  arms.  Under  the 
preaching  of  George  Fox  and  other  itinerant  evan- 
gelists, aided  by  permanent  ministers  of  the  Society 
of  Friends,  a  number  of  their  meetings  were  estab- 
lished in  Maryland,  and  their  influence  has  always 
been  a  noteworthy  one.  Fendall  had  been  governor 
for  two  years  only  when  he  proved  himself  unfaith- 
ful to  the  Proprietary,  and,  surrendering  his  com- 
mission as  governor,  accepted  a  new  one  from  the 
Assembly,  which  claimed  the  right  to  make  laws 

Vol.  1-1  ( 


162  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

•without  Baltimore's  consent.  When  news  of  these 
measures  reached  England,  Baltimore  dismissed 
Fendall  and  appointed  his  half  brother,  Philip  Cal- 
vert,  as  governor,  sending  with  him  an  amnesty.  As 
soon  as  Calvert  arrived  in  Maryland,  the  plot  of 
Fendall  collapsed,  and  fines,  with  perpetual  disfran- 
chisement  for  a  few  men,  were  the  only  penalties 
which  the  lenient  governor  inflicted.  In  1661,  the 
Proprietor  substituted  his  only  son,  Charles  Calvert, 
who  should  succeed  him  as  Lord  Baltimore,  in  place 
of  his  brother,  Philip,  who  was  solaced  with  the 
Chancellorship  of  Maryland.  Shortly  thereafter, 
Leonard  Calvert 's  son,  William,  was  made  provin- 
cial secretary,  and  a  period  of  family  government 
began  which  lasted  for  nearly  thirty  years,  as  there 
were  frequently  other  relatives  of  Baltimore  in  the 
council. 

Meanwhile  the  Swedes  had  founded  a  colony  on 
the  Delaware  in  1638,  and  the  Dutch  had  reduced 
this  New  Sweden  to  New  Netherland  in  1655.  Mary- 
land's representative  had  been  sent  to  notify  the 
Dutch  that  they  were  within  her  limits,  and  must 
either  acknowledge  her  jurisdiction  or  leave  the 
province.  Stuyvesant  sent  two  envoys  on  this  matter 
to  St.  Mary's,  so  that  his  side  of  the  controversy 
might  be  strongly  presented.  One  of  these  was  Au- 
gustine Herman,  who  was  so  attracted  by  the  prov- 
ince that  he  removed  into  it  and  took  up  a  manor  in 
its  northeastern  part,  which  he  called  Bohemia  from 
his  native  land,  and  for  which  he  paid  by  executing 
the  first  well  surveyed  map  of  Maryland.  Other 
Dutch  and  Swedish  settlers  came  across  into  the 
lands  of  the  Chesapeake  and  trade  sprang  up  be- 
tween the  two  bays.  This  trade  with  the  Dutch  was 
lucrative  and  was  illicit  under  the  English  navigation 
laws.  Its  profitable  character  seems  to  have  been 
partly  the  cause  why  the  provincial  authorities  hesi- 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  163 

tated  to  take  decided  action  to  reduce  the  Dutch  until 
it  was  too  late,  and  the  Delaware  settlements  had 
fallen  before  the  English  fleet  in  1664.  Seizing  them 
by  right  of  conquest,  the  King  granted  them  to  his 
brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  as  part  of  his  province 
of  New  York,  and  for  nearly  twenty  years  there  was 
considerable  friction  between  the  two  provinces 
through  Calvert's  sending  his  officers,  from  time  to 
time,  to  summon  the  Delawareans  to  admit  his  over- 
lordship  and  through  his  granting  lands  in  that 
region.  Cecil  Calvert  died  in  1675.  During  the  lat- 
ter years  of  his  life  matters  were  relatively  quiet 
in  Maryland,  although  we  read  of  Indian  difficulties 
and  of  occasional  differences  between  governor  and 
Assembly.  The  boundary  between  Maryland  and 
Virginia  on  the  eastern  shore  was  run,  with  some 
loss  to  our  province  through  imperfect  surveying. 
The  tobacco  trade  flourished  and  settlements  spread 
along  the  shores  of  the  Bay  so  that  Baltimore  and 
Cecil  counties  were  erected  near  the  head  of  the 
Chesapeake,  and  Talbot,  Somerset  and  Dorchester 
counties  on  the  eastern  shore. 

The  Proprietary  rule  of  Charles  Lord  Baltimore 
was  fully  as  disturbed  as  his  father's  had  been.  The 
Indian  troubles  caused  a  joint  expedition  by  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  forces  against  the  Susquehan- 
nocks  in  1675.  Before  the  Indian  fort,  in  shameful 
violation  of  a  safe  conduct,  the  Maryland  commander 
weakly  yielded  to  the  Virginians '  clamor  and  five  of 
the  chiefs  were  wickedly  put  to  death.  He  was  im- 
peached by  the  Maryland  Assembly,  but  escaped 
punishment  through  disagreement  of  the  Houses. 
After  a  month's  siege,  the  Indians  fled  from  the  fort. 
Some  of  them  went  southward  and  began  that  course 
of  rapine  in  Virginia  which  led  to  Bacon's  rebellion; 
while  others,  fleeing  northward,  joined  themselves  to 
the  tribes  of  their  Iroquois  kindred  and  brought 


164  THE  HISTOEY  OF  MARYLAND. 

Senecas  and  Onondagas  repeatedly  into  Maryland 
in  hostile  incursions  against  the  white  settlers  and 
the  friendly  tribes,  toward  whom  their  hatred  was 
even  greater. 

The  rebellion  of  1676  in  Virginia  had  a  lesser 
counterpart  in  Maryland,  which  was  easily  quelled; 
but,  four  years  later,  a  more  serious  disturbance 
arose,  headed  by  Fendall  and  one  John  Coode,  a 
renegade  Anglican  clergyman.  This  led  to  the  ban- 
ishment of  Fendall,  but  the  discontent,  though  re- 
pressed at  the  time,  was  destined  to  grow,  and  the 
"Popish  plot"  in  England,  with  the  fear  which  the 
people  there  had  for  the  overthrow  of  their  religion, 
found  reflection  in  Maryland  in  the  suspicion  felt 
by  many  towards  a  Eoman  Catholic  Proprietary. 

Relations  With  Penn. 

A  worse  danger  yet  for  the  province  arose  in  1681, 
when  William  Penn,  the  true  evil  genius  of  Mary- 
land, obtained  a  patent  from  the  King  for  a  large 
tract  of  land,  bounded  on  the  south  by  a  "circle 
drawn  at  twelve  miles  distance  from  New  Castle, 
northward  and  westward  to  the  beginning  of  the  for- 
tieth degree  of  north  latitude,  and  thence  by  a 
straight  line  westward."  To  this  grant  he  added  a 
further  one,  from  the  Duke  of  York,  of  Newcastle 
with  a  territory  of  twelve  miles  around  it,  and  the 
lands  bounding  on  the  Delaware  southward  to  Cape 
Henlopen.  Penn  began,  at  once,  to  colonize  his  prov- 
ince and  territories,  which,  respectively,  took  the 
names  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  and  endeav- 
ored to  gain  over  the  frontier  inhabitants  of  Mary- 
land. His  great  object  was  to  obtain  access  to  the 
waters  of  the  upper  Chesapeake.  Baltimore  strug- 
gled on  the  other  hand  to  preserve  his  province  in- 
tact, and  so  wished,  at  once,  to  fix  the  fortieth  paral- 
lel. The  two  Proprietors  met  several  times,  but 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  165 

Penn  would  not  make  direct  observations  of  latitude, 
although  he  suggested  that  measurements  be  made 
from  the  Capes  of  the  Chesapeake,  by  which  means 
he  thought  Baltimore  would  gain  from  Virginia  as 
much  as  he  would  lose  to  the  north. 

While  Penn  delayed  a  decision  of  the  fortieth  par- 
allel and  placed  his  city  of  Philadelphia  just  south 
of  it,  to  obtain  the  advantage  of  possession  and  to 
manifest  his  brotherly  love  for  the  rightful  owner 
of  the  land  by  wresting  his  territory  from  him,  he 
pressed  hard  for  a  determination  of  his  claim  to 
Delaware.  The  death  of  Charles  II.  aided  him  in 
this,  since  it  placed  Penn's  patron  on  the  throne  as 
James  II.,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Privy 
Council,  on  Nov.  7, 1685,  reported  that  the  peninsula 
should  be  divided  between  the  claimants  by  a  merid- 
ian line  running  north  from  the  latitude  of  Cape 
Henlopen.  This  decision  was  based  on  a  mistaken 
and  highly  technical  application  of  the  clause  in  the 
Maryland  charter,  by  which  Baltimore  was  granted 
territory  "hitherto  uncultivated."  These  words 
were,  in  any  case,  words  of  description  and  not  of 
limitation.  At  the  time  the  charter  was  granted,  the 
only  Europeans  within  the  province  were  such  fur 
traders  as  Claiborne,  whose  claims  had  been  disal- 
lowed. The  alleged  Dutch  settlers  had  been  re- 
garded as  "lawless  interlopers,  and,  as  such,  they 
were  forcibly  reduced  by  the  English,"  yet,  "when 
it  was  a  question  of  robbing  Baltimore  to  gratify  a 
royal  favorite,  they,  the  Dutch,  were  settlers  and 
their  occupation  valid." 

Internal  Disturbances. 

James  II.  went  further  and  talked  of  having  the 
charter  of  Maryland  forfeited  and  the  Proprietary's 
position  was  weakened  by  the  unfortunate  killing  of 
an  obnoxious  revenue  officer  by  a  hot-headed  Irish 


166  THE  HISTOKY  OF  MARYLAND. 

relative  of  Baltimore,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
Council.  Before  Baltimore  had  gone  to  England  in 
1684  to  look  after  his  affairs,  leaving  the  Council  in 
charge.  Four  years  later  he  sent  out  a  conceited, 
wordy,  unpractical  lawyer,  who  had  high  notions  of 
prerogative  and  was  a  strong  partisan  of  King 
James.  There  were  Indian  troubles  and  rumors  of 
strange  alliances  between  the  Eoman  Catholics  in 
Maryland  and  in  Canada.  The  messenger  sent  by 
Baltimore  to  order  the  proclamation  of  William  and 
Mary  died,  and  the  Council  refused  to  proclaim  the 
new  sovereign  without  orders  from  the  Proprietary. 
In  July,  1689,  Nehemiah  Blakiston,  collector  of  royal 
customs  and  an  old  enemy  of  Baltimore,  with  Coode, 
and  other  Protestants  rose  in  revolt.  Not  all  of  the 
Protestant  settlers  were  with  them,  but  the  agitators 
were  in  such  earnest  and  Baltimore's  supporters 
were  so  lukewarm  that,  within  a  month,  the  Prot- 
estant Association  was  supreme  and  the  Propri- 
etary government  was  overthrown.  The  new  rulers 
asked  the  crown  to  administer  Maryland  as  a  royal 
province,  and,  their  request  being  granted,  the  first 
royal  governor  came  over  in  1692.  The  charter  was 
not  forfeited,  however,  nor  was  the  title  to  the  land 
or  his  other  private  rights  taken  from  Baltimore. 

Annapolis  and  the  Church  Establishment. 

The  royal  governors  brought  a  greater  regularity 
and  formality  into  the  proceedings  of  the  govern- 
ment. We  find  the  development  of  a  highly  trained 
and  able  body  of  lawyers,  who  gave  the  Maryland 
bar  its  first  renown.  Under  Francis  Nicholson,  the 
capital  was  transferred  from  St.  Mary's  City  to  a 
site  further  north  on  the  Severn  Eiver,  where  the 
new  town  of  Annapolis  was  founded  and  named  in 
honor  of  the  Queen,  who,  with  her  husband,  is  also 
commemorated  in  the  counties  of  Queen  Anne's  and 


THE  PBOVINCE  OF  MAEYLAND.  167 

Prince  George's,  the  latter  the  first  inland  county  on 
the  western  shore.  Nicholson's  administration  is 
also  remarkable  for  the  establishment  of  the  Church 
of  England  and  the  levy  for  its  support  of  tobacco 
from  every  taxable  person,  which  condition  contin- 
ued until  Maryland  ceased  to  be  a  province.  About 
the  same  time  the  beginning  of  the  educational  sys- 
tem was  made  by  the  establishment  of  King  Will- 
iam's School  at  Annapolis  in  1696.  The  Bishop  of 
London  had  control  of  ecclesiastical  matters  in  the 
colonies,  and  he  appointed,  as  his  commissary  in 
Maryland,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Bray,  the  founder 
of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowl- 
edge and  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel.  Dr.  Bray  came  to  Maryland  in  1700  for 
a  few  months  only,  but  his  influence  upon  the  prov- 
ince was  important.  Feeling  that  good  men  must 
be  procured  for  the  Anglican  Church's  ministry  in 
Maryland,  and  finding  that  such  men  were  deterred 
from  coming  hither  because  of  a  lack  of  books,  he 
conceived  the  idea  of  a  system  of  parochial  libraries 
for  the  use  of  the  clergy.  When  he  attempted  to 
establish  these,  he  felt  that  more  was  needed  and 
that  there  should  be  a  Provincial  Lending  Library 
at  the  capital  for  the  use  of  the  clergy  and  gentry. 
The  project  was  accomplished  and  the  first  library 
system  in  America  was  established,  while  the  Anna- 
politan  library  of  nearly  1,100  volumes  was  the  first 
free  public  circulating  library  in  the  country,  and  was 
a  remarkably  complete  one  for  the  time.  The  early 
part  of  the  Eighteenth  century  saw  the  establish- 
ment of  Presbyterianism  in  the  province  through  the 
efforts  of  Francis  Makemie  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
eastern  shore. 

Annapolis  was  the  first  town  of  any  importance 
in  the  province,  and  after  it  was  founded,  St.  Mary's 
City  disappeared.  The  possibility  of  reaching 


nearly  every  planter's  wharf  by  the  shipping,  which 
carried  away  his  tobacco  or  wheat,  rendered  towns 
less  necessary,  so  that  the  frequent  attempts  to  es- 
tablish them  were  nearly  always  fruitless  during  the 
provincial  period,  and  Annapolis  itself,  although 
boasting  of  a  remarkably  cultured  and  attractive 
society,  and  possessing  some  fine  town  houses  of  the 
wealthy  planters,  had  but  little  trade.  The  inden- 
tured white  servants  had  been  the  main  labor  supply 
in  the  Seventeenth  century;  in  the  Eighteenth  cen- 
tury we  find  the  negro  slaves  appearing  in  large 
numbers,  especially  after  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht 
placed  an  important  part  of  the  African  slave  trade 
in  English  hands. 

The  Proprietors  from  1715  to  1776. 

The  repressive  laws  of  the  province  under  royal 
government  refused  liberty  to  the  Roman  Catholics. 
The  death  of  Charles,  Lord  Baltimore,  in  1715,  caused 
the  proprietaryship  to  descend  upon  his  son,  Bene- 
dict Leonard  Calvert.  He  had  become  a  Protestant, 
so  there  was  no  longer  left  the  pretext  that  it  would 
be  unsafe  to  permit  the  government  to  be  carried  on 
under  Roman  Catholic  influences,  and  it  was  restored 
to  the  Calverts.  Benedict  Leonard  Calvert  died  two 
months  after  his  father  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
son,  Charles,  the  Fifth  Lord  Baltimore,  who  was  still 
a  minor.  The  new  Lord  was  a  skillful  yachtsman,  a 
dissolute,  unlovely  man.  He  was  a  friend  and  ad- 
mirer of  Frederick,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  after  whom 
he  named  his  only  son  Frederick,  the  last  and  worst 
of  the  Calverts,  who  was  Proprietary  from  1751  to 
1771.  Frederick,  Lord  Baltimore,  was  a  rake,  who 
never  visited  his  province,  though  he  was  fond  of 
traveling  through  Europe,  and  who  left  the  province 
to  Henry  Harford,  his  illegitimate  son.  The  title  of 
Lord  Baltimore  died  with  Frederick,  that  of  Lord 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND..  169 

Proprietary  was  wrested  from  Harford  by  the 
American  Revolution.  After  that  war  Harford,  who 
had  just  attained  manhood,  visited  the  state  for  the 
first  time,  in  the  vain  endeavor  to  obtain  some  reim- 
bursement for  his  losses  of  revenues  and  of  land,  all 
of  which  had  been  confiscated  to  the  state. 

While  the  province  was  under  royal  rule,  the  Pro- 
prietary had  an  agent  in  Maryland  to  attend  to  his 
private  affairs  and  watch  that  the  governor  and 
Assembly  did  not  encroach  upon  his  lands  and  reve- 
nues. To  fill  that  post  he  sent  over  from  Europe 
Charles  Carroll,  an  Irish  Roman  Catholic,  the 
founder  of  an  important  family.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Assembly  was  represented  in  England  by  its 
agent  appointed  to  watch  after  provincial  interests 
there.  At  the  time  of  the  Proprietary 's  restoration, 
the  governor  of  Maryland  was  Capt.  John  Hart,  a 
man  of  infirm  health,  a  hot-blooded,  capable,  Prot- 
estant Irishman,  who  was  continued  in  office  by  the 
guardian  of  the  young  Proprietary.  Theoretically, 
the  second  Charles  Lord  Baltimore  had  the  same 
rights  as  the  first ;  practically,  the  twenty- five  years 
of  royal  rule  had  made  a  vast  difference.  An  un- 
known youth  was  at  the  head  of  affairs,  and,  hence- 
forth, the  Proprietary  seems  to  have  been  regarded 
as  an  absentee  landlord.  The  people  seemed  to  have 
cared  but  little  for  the  change  and  the  Proprietaries 
made  little  use  of  their  power,  except  as  a  means  of 
appointing  relatives  and  friends  to  office.  Hart's 
administration  saw  the  preparation  of  a  compre- 
hensive code  by  a  committee  of  the  Assembly,  whose 
chairman  was  Andrew  Hamilton.  Shortly  after- 
wards Hamilton  removed  to  Philadelphia,  and  was 
the  first  American  lawyer  to  gain  continental  repu- 
tation. From  Philadelphia  he  went  to  New  York  to 
defend  John  Peter  Zenger,  whom  he  had  known  long 
before,  when  both  were  neighbors  in  Chestertown  on 


170  THE  HISTOKY  OF  MARYLAND. 

the  eastern  shore.  The  Protestants  knew  that  the 
Calverts  were  of  their  faith,  and  soon  found  no 
ground  for  apprehension  that  they  might  lean  too 
much  towards  the  adherents  of  their  ancestors'  re- 
ligion. The  Catholics  hoped,  at  first,  that  they  might 
regain  a  part,  at  least,  of  their  old  influence  and 
position,  but  were  soon  rudely  disillusioned  and 
were  even  disfranchised  as  a  result  of  a  violent  con- 
tention between  Carroll  and  Hart,  who  was  backed 
by  the  Assembly.  Some  little  suspicion  of  Jacobit- 
ism  made  the  Catholics  still  more  unpopular,  and 
the  repressive  laws  against  them  were  continued 
throughout  the  provincial  period. 

Charles  Calvert,  a  relative  of  the  Proprietary,  be- 
came governor  in  1720,  and  his  seven  years  of  ad- 
ministration saw  two  noteworthy  events.  In  1723 
the  General  Assembly  passed  a  law  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  free  school  in  each  county.  This  system  of 
academies  was  the  only  provision  made  for  educa- 
tion by  the  province  during  the  provincial  period, 
but  the  benevolence  of  the  friends  of  Rev.  Thomas 
Bacon  enabled  him  to  establish  a  "charity  working 
school"  in  Talbot  county  in  1750,  in  which  manual 
training  and  the  education  of  negroes  were  note- 
worthy features.  Private  schools  and  private  tutors 
also  gave  education  to  the  gentry,  whose  sons  were 
frequently  sent  to  Europe  for  the  completion  of  their 
training. 

The  second  notable  occurrence  of  Charles  Calvert 's 
administration  was  a  controversy,  which  lasted  for 
several  years,  between  the  legislature  and  the  Pro- 
prietary, as  to  whether  the  English  laws  extended  to 
Maryland.  The  provincials  won  in  the  struggle,  and 
their  bold  resolutions  were  long  remembered:  "that 
this  province  hath  always  hitherto  had  the  common 
law  and  such  general  statutes  of  England,  as  are  not 
restrained  by  words  of  local  limitation,  and  such 


THE  PEOVINCE  OF  MAKYLAKD..  171 

acts  of  Assembly  as  were  made  in  the  province  to 
suit  its  particular  constitution,  as  the  rule  and  stand- 
ard of  its  government  and  judicature."  Those  who 
maintain  the  contrary  "  intend  to  infringe  our  Eng- 
lish liberties  and  to  frustrate  the  intent  of  the  crown 
in  the  original  grant  of  this  province." 

Benedict  Leonard  Calvert,  younger  brother  of 
Lord  Baltimore,  came  out  to  Maryland  as  governor 
in  1727,  and  died  of  consumption  on  his  way  home 
in  1731.  He  is  a  pathetic  figure,  for  the  promise  of 
his  high-minded,  lovable,  scholarly  nature  had  not 
time  for  fulfilment.  He  had  studied  in  Oxford  and 
traveled  in  Italy,  and,  in  his  time,  Ebenezer  Cook, 
who  styled  himself  "laureate  of  Maryland,"  pub- 
lished in  Annapolis  the  first  poem  printed  in  Mary- 
land, the  second  part  of  that  satire  on  Maryland 
manners,  of  which  the  first  part,  called  the  Sot  weed 
Factor,  had  appeared  in  England  twenty  years  be- 
fore. The  first  printing  press  in  Maryland  had  been 
set  up  about  1690,  the  first  extant  imprint  dates  from 
1700,  but  the  first  newspaper  was  published  at  An- 
napolis in  1728,  in  which  year,  also,  Governor  Cal- 
vert received  the  dedication  of  a  little  book  prepared 
by  R.  Lewis,  a  master  of  King  William's  School,  who 
had  edited  Holdsworth's  Musclpula,  and  made  a 
metrical  translation  of  it. 

Calvert 's  administration  was  also  the  period  when 
the  two  events  occurred  which  caused  Maryland  to 
cease  to  be  entirely  a  Southern  colony,  and  to  begin 
that  career  which  made  her  a  border  state.  In  1729 
Baltimore  Town  was  laid  out  on  the  Patapsco  and, 
about  this  time,  the  first  German  settlers  came  from 
Pennsylvania  into  the  fertile  valleys  of  Western 
Maryland.  Thus  the  province  founded  its  great  com- 
mercial city  and  gained  a  band  of  sturdy,  God-fear- 
ing, hard-working  men,  whose  ties  were  with  the 
Pernsylvanians  rather  than  with  the  Virginians. 


172  THE  HISTOKY  OF  MARYLAND. 

The  opening  of  the  back  country  gave  Maryland  an 
opportunity  to  seek  western  trade,  and  started  that 
struggle  between  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  to  ob- 
tain that  trade,  which  led  Braddock,  influenced  by 
the  settlers  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  to  make  his 
road  through  Maryland,  and  Forbes,  influenced  by 
the  settlers  in  Pennsylvania,  in  his  more  successful 
expedition  against  Fort  Du  Quesne,  to  make  his  road 
through  the  latter  colony.  The  Germans  in  Maryland 
were  not  slaveholders,  had  few  servants,  and  culti- 
vated little  tobacco,  but  devoted  their  chief  attention 
to  cereals.  They  also  began  small  manufactures 
and  thus  diversified  the  industry  of  the  palatinate. 
In  1732  Charles,  Lord  Baltimore,  came  to  the  prov- 
ince in  an  attempt  to  settle  the  boundary  dispute  on 
the  north  with  Penn's  sons,  who  were  joint  propri- 
etors there.  By  some  unexplained  means,  in  this 
year  Baltimore  had  yielded  to  them  all  that  they  had 
demanded,  and  presented  them  several  millions  of 
acres  of  land  to  which  they  had  no  right.  Although 
the  Pennsylvanians  had  settled  Philadelphia  and 
Chester  south  of  the  fortieth  parallel,  they  had  no 
settlements  as  far  west  as  the  Susquehanna,  beyond 
which  river  Marylanders  were  already  building 
cabins  near  the  north  boundary.  But  Baltimore 
agreed  to  run  a  line  fifteen  miles  south  of  Phila- 
delphia, due  west,  so  far  as  the  provinces  were  coter- 
minous. "When  he  found  his  mistake,  he  applied  to 
the  English  courts  and  refused  to  run  the  boundary, 
about  which  a  petty  warfare  was  carried  on  by  the 
settlers.  The  case  dragged  on  until  1760,  when  it 
was  finally  settled  by  an  acceptance  of  the  line  of 
1732,  and  three  years  later  Charles  Mason  and  Jere- 
miah Dixon,  two  excellent  English  surveyors,  were 
sent  out  and  spent  four  years  in  marking  the  bound- 
ary between  the  Penn's  possessions  and  those  of 
Baltimore. 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  173 

Maryland,  1765  to  1776. 

During  the  years  of  the  Eighteenth  century,  the 
province  grew  in  population  and  in  culture.  Wor- 
cester county  on  the  eastern  shore  was  established 
in  1742,  and  Frederick  on  the  western  in  1748.  Dr. 
Richard  Brooke,  physician  and  politician,  sent  the 
results  of  his  scientific  observations  to  the  English 
magazines,  and  the  Annapolis  Gazette,  established 
in  1752,  published  graceful  and  correct  poems  writ- 
ten by  the  colonial  gentlemen.  Horatio  Sharpe  came 
over  as  governor  in  1753,  and  continued  in  that  office 
until  relieved  in  1768  by  the  Proprietary's  brother- 
in-law,  Capt.  Eobert  Eden,  the  last  provincial  gov- 
ernor. A  wise  and  popular  man,  Sharpe  had  a  diffi- 
cult position  during  the  French  and  Indian  War,  in 
which  Maryland  played  no  very  creditable  part,  ow- 
ing to  a  niggardly  Proprietary  and  a  narrow-minded, 
unpatriotic  General  Assembly. 

Like  the  other  colonies,  Maryland  repudiated  the 
Stamp  Act,  and  forced  the  stamp  distributor  to  flee 
the  province  and  to  resign  his  office.  The  General 
Assembly  passed  bold  resolves,  standing  for  a  re- 
fusal of  taxation  without  representation  and  claim- 
ing that  the  provincial  legislature  had  the  "sole 
right  to  lay  taxes  or  impositions  on  the  inhabitants 
of  this  province,  or  their  property  and  effects. ' '  The 
day  came  on  which  the  act  was  to  go  into  operation, 
and  there  were  no  stamps  in  the  province.  How 
should  business  be  transacted  if  unstamped  paper 
was  illegal?  The  Frederick  county  court  took  the 
sensible  course  and  declared  that  its  business  should 
be  carried  on  without  stamps,  and  the  other  courts 
of  the  province  followed. 

Maryland  was  represented  in  the  Continental 
Stamp  Act  Congress,  and  took  part  in  the  non-im- 
portation agreement  and  in  the  correspondence  with 
the  other  colonies,  so  as  to  present  a  united  front 


174  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

against  British  action.  Yet  she  was  conservative, 
and,  in  Sharpe  and  Eden,  she  had  two  governors  of 
rare  popularity.  Eden  had  not  only  the  British 
revenue  acts  to  cause  him  difficulty,  but  also  two 
local  troubles.  A  strong  party  in  the  province  de- 
clared that  the  act,  which  provided  for  the  support 
of  the  clergy,  had  not  been  properly  passed  and  was 
void,  while  the  struggle  over  officers'  fees  was  one 
which  involved  great  excitement.  Most  officers  were 
paid  by  fees,  and  the  acts  fixing  these  fees  had  been 
made  temporary,  so  that  the  amounts  might  be  read- 
justed at  each  passage.  The  chief  offices  were  held 
by  the  Councillors,  who  naturally  wished  large  fees, 
and  when  the  act  expired  in  1770,  dissensions  be- 
tween the  two  houses  of  the  Assembly  had  caused  all 
attempts  to  pass  a  new  law  to  fail.  What  should  be 
done?  Eden  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding  any 
officer  to  take  a  greater  fee  than  allowed  by  the  old 
law.  This,  of  course,  virtually  authorized  him  to 
take  fees  at  the  old  rate,  and  so  fixed  the  fees.  Had 
the  governor  a  right  to  do  this  f  A  fierce  controversy 
in  the  newspaper  followed  between  Daniel  Dulany, 
who  defended  the  governor,  and  Charles  Carroll,  of 
Carrollton,  who  attacked  him.  While  the  majority 
of  the  people  undoubtedly  sided  with  Carroll,  the 
governor  held  the  whip  hand,  and  fees  were  collected 
at  the  old  rate  till  independence  came.  In  Eden's 
administration,  two  new  counties,  Caroline  and  Har- 
ford,  were  established.  In  1774,  Eden  went  to  Eng- 
land for  a  few  months  and,  while  he  was  away,  in 
June,  there  met  at  Annapolis  * '  a  general  congress  of 
deputies  from  all  the  counties"  to  consider  measures 
of  opposition  to  England.  This  body  was  the  first  of  a 
series  of  conventions  which  chose  delegates  to  Con- 
tinental Congress  and  Committees  of  Safety,  to  act 
as  executives  during  the  periods  between  conven- 
tions; which  sent  troops  to  fight  the  British  at  the 


CHARLES  CARROLL. 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  175 

north  and  directed  the  choice  of  Committees  of  Ob- 
servation in  the  counties  to  care  for  local  matters; 
and  which  by  the  Association,  a  document  offered 
in  1775  for  subscription  to  the  freemen  of  the  prov- 
ince, approved  of  the  measures  adopted  by  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  in  opposition  to  Great  Britain,  and 
united  the  people  "in  maintenance  of  good  order  and 
the  public  peace."  Though  Eden's  influence  could 
not  prevent  acts  of  lawlessness  from  time  to  time, 
his  tact  and  good-fellowship  with  the  provincial  lead- 
ers and  the  conservatism  which  showed  itself  gen- 
erally in  the  province  kept  the  "ostensible  form  of 
government"  intact  until  the  middle  of  1776,  and 
led  the  Provincial  Convention,  on  May  17th,  to  deny 
that  it  was  necessary  to  suppress  the  royal  govern- 
ment and,  on  May  21st,  to  express  the  hope  for  a 
"reunion  with  Great  Britain  on  constitutional  prin- 
ciples." Eden  saw,  however,  that  "they  will  not 
long  be  able  to  stem  the  torrent  which,  in  several 
provinces,  runs  strongly  toward  independence,"  and 
declined  to  accept  the  convention's  proposition  that 
he  remain  as  governor,  and  promise  to  take  "no 
active  hostile  part,  nor  to  correspond  with  the  Brit- 
ish government."  Accordingly,  he  embarked  on  a 
British  man-of-war  on  June  23d  and  sailed  for  Eng- 
land, where,  in  August,  for  his  skillful  administra- 
tion of  the  affairs  of  the  province,  he  was  created 
Baronet  of  Maryland,  an  honor  still  worn  by  his 
descendant. 

Matthew  Tilghman,  William  Paca  and  the  two 
Carrolls  were  urging  independence,  Baltimore  Town 
and  Frederick  county  were  wild  for  it,  Samuel  Chase, 
like  a  flame  of  fire,  had  preached  it  throughout  Mary- 
land, and  on  June  21st,  the  convention  voted  to  allow 
its  deputies  in  the  Continental  Congress  to  unite  with 
those  of  the  other  colonies  in  declaring  independ- 
ence and  forming  a  confederation.  On  July  3d  the 


176  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

convention  adopted  her  own  declaration  of  independ- 
ence, and  thereafter  began  the  task  of  preparing  a 
permanent  constitution  for  the  new  state,  which 
showed  herself  behind  no  other  one  of  the  thirteen  in 
her  zeal  and  fidelity  to  the  common  cause.  The  his- 
tory of  the  province  is  the  history  of  those  begin- 
nings which  caused  the  state's  later  career  to  be  a 
successful  one,  and  which  explain  the  direction  which 
the  later  history  has  taken. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY — Allen,  Ethan:  The  Garrison  Church  (1898);  Alsop, 
George:  Character  of  the  Province  of  Maryland  (Md.  His.  S.  F.  Pubs.); 
Baldwin,  Jane:  Maryland  Calendar  of  Wills  (1901-07);  Bowen,  L.  P.: 
Days  of  Makemie  (1885) ;  Bowie,  W.  W. :  Bouries  and  their  Kindred  (1899) ; 
Brantly,  W.  T. :  The  English  in  Maryland  (In  Winsor's  Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America,  Vol.  4);  Brackett,  J.  R. :  The  Negro  in  Mary- 
land (Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies);  Black,  J.  Wm.:  Maryland's  Atti- 
tude in  the  Struggle  for  Canada  (Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies,  10th  Se- 
ries); Bozman,  John  L.:  History  of  Maryland  to  1658  (2  v.  1837);  Browne, 
Wm.  Hand:  Maryland,  the  History  of  a  Palatinate  (Am.  Commonwealths) 
1884;  George  and  Cecilius  Calvert  (Makers  of  America)  1890;  Ed.  Calvert 
Papers  Nos.  1  and  2  (Md.  His.  S.  F.  Pubs.);  Ed.  Maryland  Archives  (Md. 
His.  Soc.);  Ed.  Maryland  Historical  Magazine,  1906-1908;  Dennis,  Al- 
fred P.:  Lord  Baltimore's  Struggle  with  the  Jesuits  (1900);  Davip,  G.  L.  L.: 
The  Day  Star  of  American  Freedom  (1855);  Doyle,  J.  A.:  The  English 
in  America,  Virginia,  Maryland  and  the  Carolinas  (1882);  Griffith,  T.  W.: 
Early  History  of  Maryland  (1821);  Annals  of  Baltimore  (1824);  Gambrall, 
T.  C. :  Studies  in  the  Colonial  History  of  Maryland  (1893);  Church  Life  in 
Colonial  Maryland  (1885);  Hall,  C.  C.:  Great  Seal  of  Maryland  (Md.  His. 
S.  F.  Pubs.);  Ed.  Calvert  Papers  No.  3,  Hanson,  Geo.  A. :  Old  Kent  (1876) ; 
Hawks,  F.  L.:  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
Maryland  (1839);  Hughes,  Rev.  Thomas:  History  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
in  North  America,  attacks  Lord  Baltimore  and  supports  the  Jesuits  (vol. 
1  text  and  vol.  1  documents  1907);  Ingle,  Edward:  Parish  Institutions  of 
Maryland  (Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies,  1st  Series);  Capt.  Richard 
Ingle  (Md.  His.  S.  F.  Pubs.);  James,  B.  B.:  The  Labadist  Colony;  John- 
son, B.  T. :  Foundation  of  Maryland  (Md.  His.  S.  F.  Pubs.) ;  Johnson,  J.  H. : 
Old  Maryland  Manors  (Johns  Hop.  His.  Studies,  1st  series);  Johnston, 
George:  History  of  Cecil  County  (1881);  Kilty,  John:  Landholder's  As- 
sistant (1808);  Latane",  J.  H.:  Early  Relations  of  Maryland  and  Virginia 
(Johns  Hop.  His.  Studies,  13th  series);  Lowdermilk,  W.  H.:  History  of 
Cumberland  (1878);  Morris,  Rev.  J.  G.:  Lords  Baltimore  (Md.  His.  S.  F. 
Pubs.);  McCormac,  E.  L:  White  Servitude  in  Maryland  (Johns  Hop.  His. 
Studies,  22d  series);  McMahon,  J.  V.  L.:  History  of  Maryland  (ChieBy 
Constitutional  to  1776)  (1831);  McSherry,  James:  History  of  Maryland  to 
1848-49  (continued  by  B.  B.  James  to  1900);  Mallery,  C.  P.:  Ancient 
Families  of  B«hemia  Manor  (1858);  Mereness,  N.  D. :  Maryland  ax  a  Pro- 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  MARYLAND.  177 


prietary  Province  (1901);  Mayer,  B.:  Logan  and  Cresap;  Neill,  E.  D.: 
Founders  of  Maryland  (1876);  Terra  Mariae  (1887):  Petrie,  .George: 
Church  and  Stale  in  Maryland  (Johns  Hop.  His.  Studies,  10th  series); 
Russell,  Rev.  W.  W.:  Land  of  the  Sanctuary  (Gives  Roman  Catholic 
view);  Riley,  E.  S.:  Legislative  History  of  Maryland  (1906);  The  Ancient 
City  (Annapolis)  (1889);  Ed.  Celebration  of  the  200th  Anniversary  of  Re- 
moval of  the  Capital  of  Maryland  (1894);  Ridgeley,  D.:  Annals  of  An- 
napolis (1841);  Streeter,  S.  F.:  First  Commander  of  Kent  Island  (Md. 
Hist.  S.  F.  Pubs.);  Papers  Relating  to  the  Early  History  of  Maryland 
(Md.  His.  S.  F.  Pubs.);  Stockbridge,  H.,  Sr.:  Archives  of  Maryland  (Md. 
His.  S.  F.  Pubs.);  Steiner,  Bernard  C.:  Maryland  during  the  English  Civil 
Wars,  Pts.  1  and  2  (Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies);  Western  Maryland  in 
the  Revolution  (1902);  Restoration  of  the  Proprietary  (1899);  Maryland's 
First  Courts  (1901);  The  First  Lord  Baltimore  (1905);  Protestant  Revolu- 
tion of  1689  in  Maryland  (Am.  His.  Asso.  Reports,  1897);  History  of  Edu- 
cation in  Maryland;  Beginnings  of  Maryland  and  Descriptions  of  Mary- 
land (Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies,  21st  and  22d  Series);  Ed.  Early 
Maryland  Poetry  (Md.  His.  S.  F.  Pubs.);  Ed.  Life  and  Works  of  Rev. 
Thomas  Bray;  Citizenship  and  Suffrage  in  Maryland  (1895);  Life  of 
Robert  Eden  (JohnsHopkins  Univ.  Studies);  Sparks,  F.  E.:  Causes  of  the 
Maryland  Revolution;  Schultz,  E.  S.:  First  Settlement  of  the  Germans  in 
Maryland  (1894);  Scharf,  J.  T.:  History  of  Maryland  to  1880  (3  Vols. 
1879) ;  Chronicles  of  Baltimore  (187 4) ;  History  of  Western  Maryland  (1882) ; 
Baltimore  City  and  County  (1881);  Sioussat,  St.  G.  L.:  Economics  and 
Politics  in  Maryland  (Johns  Hopkins  His.  Studies,  21st  series);  Silver, 
J.  A.:  Provisional  Government  of  Maryland  (Johns  Hopkins  Univ. 
Studies,  13th  series);  Thomas,  J.  T.:  Chronicles  of  Colonial  Maryland 
(1900)  (especially  good  for  St.  Mary's  County);  White,  Rev.  A.:  Nar- 
rative of  the  Voyage  to  Maryland  (Md.  His.  S.  F.  Pubs.);  Wilhelm,  L.  W.: 
Sir  George  Calvert  (Md.  His.  S.  F.  Pubs.);  Maryland  Local  Institutions 
(Johns  Hop.  His.  Studies,  2d  series).  Proceedings  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly 1637-1710  (9  vols.);  Proceedings  of  the  Council  1636-1752  (9  Vols.); 
Judicial  and  Testamentary  Business  of  the  Provincial  Court  1637-1657 
(2  Vols.);  Correspondence  of  Gov.  Sharpe,  1753-71  (3  Vols.);  Journal  and 
Correspondence  of  the  Council  of  Safety,  1735-1776  (2  Vols.);  The  Reports 
of  the  Maryland  State  Weather  Service  and  of  the  Geological  Survey 
(especially  those  articles  by  Edward  B.  Mathews  on  the  Cartography  of 
the  State  in  Vol.  I,  and  on  the  County  boundaries  in  Vol.  6,  and  by  St. 
G.  L.  Sioussat  on  the  Highways  in  Vol.  2  and  the  various  county  vol- 
umes. 

BERNARD  C.  STEINER, 

Librarian  The  Enoch  Pratt  Free  Library;  Associate  in  History, 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 


Tol.  1-1*. 


178  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

CHAPTER  II. 
MAEYLAND  FEOM  1776  TO  1868. 

Steps  to  the  Revolution. 

In  the  first  colonial  period  of  Maryland's  history, 
the  absence  of  towns,  the  comparative  isolation  and 
the  almost  boundless  personal  freedom  of  the  plant- 
ers checked  the  growth  of  political  consciousness 
among  the  people.  What  political  questions  arose 
they  left  to  be  handled  by  their  delegates  at  the  cap- 
ital, not  troubling  themselves  much  about  them  be- 
yond a  feeling  that  whatever  seemed  to  run  counter 
to  the  views  of  the  Governor  and  Council  was  to  be 
approved  on  general  principles.  But  in  the  second 
period,  and  especially  after  the  restoration  of  the 
Proprietary  government,  there  was  a  great  change. 
This  was  the  time  of  a  continued  struggle  for  popular 
liberty ;  and  the  people  understood  that  it  was  some- 
thing more  than  a  wrangle  between  the  two  Houses. 

The  Palatinate  government  of  Maryland  was  pe- 
culiar. The  Proprietary  was  invested  with  royal 
powers,  yet  the  people  were  liegemen  of  the  King  of 
England.  The  charter,  after  carefully  denning  the 
rights  and  privileges  that  it  conferred,  in  an  appar- 
ent superabundance  of  liberality,  added  a  clause  de- 
claring that  the  colonists  should  enjoy  all  the  rights, 
liberties  and  franchises  of  the  people  of  England.  A 
double  standard  was  thus  set  up :  a  measure  clearly 
within  the  scope  of  the  charter  might  be  combated 
on  the  ground  that  it  infringed  British  liberties. 

As  the  province  prospered  and  the  planters  in- 
creased in  wealth,  they  reached  out  toward  higher 
standards  of  living.  For  one  thing,  they  began  to 
send  their  sons  to  England,  there  to  acquire  a  higher 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  179 

and  broader  culture  than  could  be  had  at  home.  As 
the  impression  prevailed  that,  next  to  the  owning 
of  land,  the  law  was  the  only  calling  for  a  gentleman, 
and  as,  moreover,  Marylanders  were  notably  liti- 
gious, nearly  all  these  youths  studied  the  law.  But 
the  legal  conditions  of  Maryland  being  peculiar,  it 
was  not  enough  for  them  to  cram  their  notebooks 
with  judges'  decisions  under  statutes  that  had  no 
validity  in  the  province ;  they  had  to  study  constitu- 
tional law,  the  foundations  of  English  liberty  and 
the  relations  of  government  to  the  people.  Thus 
there  arose  a  body  of  constitutional  lawyers,  some  of 
great  intelligence  and  ability,  whose  views  and  argu- 
ments, disseminated  by  the  press,  were  eagerly  read 
by  the  people,  who  thus  acquired  a  political  educa- 
tion. 

At  the  opening  of  a  series  of  events  which  was  to 
draw  Maryland  into  the  current  of  world-politics, 
and  make  her  an  active  force  in  a  movement  which 
was  destined  to  change  the  map  of  the  world  and 
profoundly  affect  the  destinies  of  a  large  part  of  the 
human  race,  it  was  fortunate  that  she  numbered 
among  her  leaders  men  of  unsurpassed  wisdom,  in- 
telligence and  patriotism,  not  to  be  turned  from  the 
course  that  they  believed  right  by  fear  of  conse- 
quences or  by  popular  clamor.  While  there  were 
many  hot-heads  ready  to  precipitate  revolution,  con- 
servative feeling  was  still  strong  in  the  province. 
For  generations  Marylanders  had  been  taught  that 
the  British  constitutional  monarchy  was  the  perfec- 
tion of  human  government.  Under  Proprietary  rule 
it  was  to  England  that  the  people  looked,  as  to  a 
wise  and  beneficent  parent,  for  the  redress  of  their 
real  or  supposed  grievances.  Even  the  late  harsh 
measures  of  that  government,  while  they  irritated, 
had  not  alienated  them:  they  ascribed  them  to  a 
malignant  ministry  who  had  misled  a  good  and  well- 


180  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

meaning  king.  The  last  two  governors  had  been  able 
and  just  men;  and  Governor  Eden  had  especially 
endeared  himself  by  his  sincere  good  will  and  ami- 
able disposition;  so  that  the  leading  men,  while  op- 
posing measures  which  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  take, 
still  held  him  in  affectionate  regard.  Eden,  nat- 
urally, could  not  look  with  unfriendly  eyes  upon  men 
with  whom  he  was  on  such  cordial  terms,  and  who 
carefully  avoided  language  that  could  wound  him; 
and  thus  he  cherished  a  natural  illusion  that  the 
hostile  feeling  was  confined  to  a  few  hot-heads  and 
demagogues,  and  that  the  men  of  standing  and  intel- 
ligence were  firmly  loyal.  These  views  he  impressed 
upon  the  British  ministry ;  and  even  when  hostilities 
had  broken  out,  he  advised  that,  if  possible,  nothing 
should  be  done  in  Maryland  to  exasperate  the  peo- 
ple and  weaken  the  influence  of  the  better  sort.  Thus, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  war,  Maryland  was  treated 
as  a  loyal  province,  and  even  the  malignant  Dun- 
more 's  hands  were  tied.  Prizes  taken  by  British 
vessels  in  the  Bay  were  released,  and  the  captain  of 
a  cruiser  sent  a  polite  note  to  the  governor  asking  for 
fresh  provisions  and  permission  to  capture  a  New 
England  vessel  in  the  Severn,  and  was  much  aston- 
ished when  given  to  understand  by  the  Council  of 
Safety  that  it  was  not  to  be  thought  of. 

Maryland  an  Independent  State. 

Maryland,  therefore,  entered  into  the  War  of  In- 
dependence, urged  by  no  spirit  of  vengeance  and 
smarting  under  no  sense  of  personal  wrong,  but  be- 
cause she  was  convinced  that  the  liberties  of  the 
American  people  were  at  stake,  and  that  in  no  other 
way  could  they  be  maintained. 

The  convention  had  been  constituted  to  see  to  the 
enforcement  of  the  non-importation  agreement,  and 
to  guard  against  invasions  of  the  people's  liberties. 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  181 

Its  powers  gradually  widened,  and  in  1775  it  took 
the  government  into  its  own  hands.  It  sent  delegates 
to  the  Continental  Congress,  but  forbade  them  to 
concur  in  a  declaration  of  independence  until  it  was 
plain  that  no  other  course  was  possible.  On  June  28, 
1776,  this  restriction  was  removed.  On  July  3  the 
convention  issued  The  Declaration  of  Independence 
of  the  Freemen  of  Maryland,  setting  forth  in  simple, 
manly  words,  with  no  pompous  verbiage,  the  wrongs 
of  which  they  complained,  and  renouncing  allegiance 
to  the  King  of  Great  Britain.  On  August  2  the 
Maryland  delegates  to  the  Congress,  Chase,  Paca, 
Stone  and  Carroll,  signed  the  engrossed  copy  of  the 
Declaration  adopted  by  Congress. 

The  convention  had  always  recognized  its  merely 
provisional  character ;  and  now,  the  Proprietary  gov- 
ernment having  been  swept  away  and  Maryland  hav- 
ing arisen  a  free,  sovereign  and  independent  state, 
it  proceeded  to  put  the  capstone  to  its  labors  by 
framing  a  Bill  of  Eights  and  a  constitution  for  sub- 
mission to  the  people.  The  elections  were  held  in 
November  and  December,  1776,  and  the  state  govern- 
ment met  in  the  following  March,  with  Thomas  John- 
son as  governor.  The  convention  having  wound  up 
its  business,  dissolved  itself  by  simple  adjournment, 
thus  terminating  the  existence  of  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  political  bodies  in  history.  It  was  dis- 
tinctly revolutionary  in  its  origin;  its  powers  were 
undefined  and  practically  unlimited;  yet  all  its  pro- 
ceedings were  characterized  by  wisdom,  conserva- 
tism and  moderation.  Neither  successes  nor  mis- 
haps, neither  the  passionate  appeals  of  the  loyalists 
nor  the  blind  clamor  of  the  multitude  ever  moved  it 
from  its  path. 

The  state  constitution  provided  for  a  governor 
and  an  Assembly  of  two  chambers,  all  elective,  and 
an  appointed  judiciary.  The  members  of  the  Lower 


182  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

House,  four  from  each  of  the  nineteen  counties  and 
two  from  each  of  the  two  cities,  Annapolis  and  Balti- 
more, were  to  be  elected  directly  by  the  people.  The 
fifteen  senators  were  to  be  chosen  by  an  electoral 
college,  and  the  governor  by  joint  ballot  of  the  two 
Houses.  The  Senate  was  restricted  to  legislative 
duties,  and  provision  was  made  for  a  Council,  chosen 
by  joint  ballot,  to  act  as  advisers  to  the  governor. 
Under  the  colonial  government  the  governor  and 
council  were  the  Upper  House,  but  now  the  executive 
and  legislative  departments  were  entirely  distinct. 

This  constitution  still  shows  traces  of  distrust  in 
the  judgment  of  the  people,  and  the  old  idea  that 
popular  wishes  had  better  pass  through  aristocratic 
minds  before  being  realized  in  action.  But  the  aris- 
tocracy was  not  that  of  birth  or  wealth,  but  of  intel- 
lectual leadership. 

At  the  very  outbreak  of  the  war,  Maryland  entered 
into  it  with  zeal,  furnished  men,  officers  and  supplies 
to  the  Continental  army,  and  strained  every  nerve 
to  meet  the  constant  demands  of  Congress.  But 
though  represented  in  Congress,  she  acted  in  the  war 
as  an  ally  only.  She  steadily  refused  to  enter  the 
Confederation,  not  for  private  reasons,  but  in  the 
interest  of  all  the  states.  Her  attitude  in  this  im- 
portant matter  requires  some  explanation. 

Maryland's  Part  in  Forming  the  United  States. 

When  Virginia  declared  her  independence  and 
formed  her  state  constitution,  she  claimed  as  right- 
fully hers  all  the  land  included  in  the  charter  of  1609, 
namely,  a  tract  extending  two  hundred  miles  north 
and  two  hundred  south  of  Point  Comfort,  and  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Even  conceding,  as  she 
did,  that  this  claim  was  modified  by  the  treaty  of 
Paris,  which  made  the  Mississippi  the  western 
boundary  of  the  British  possessions,  Virginia's  ter- 


MARYLAND  OFFICERS  IN  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ARMY. 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  183 

ritory  would  be  several  times  as  extensive  as  that  of 
all  the  other  states  put  together.  But  she  expressed 
her  willingness  to  "cede"  to  the  states  of  Maryland, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware  and  North  Carolina  the 
lands  covered  by  their  respective  charters.  But  as 
the  charter  of  1609  had  been  revoked  by  due  process 
of  law  in  1624,  and  no  claim  made  under  it  for  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years,  this  extraordinary  claim  might 
very  well  have  waited  for  settlement  until  the  issue 
of  the  war  was  decided,  but  for  a  matter  which  made 
it  of  immediate  importance. 

To  induce  soldiers  to  enlist,  Congress  had  offered 
bounties  in  land — a  hundred  acres  to  each  private 
and  larger  grants  to  officers.  But  where  were  these 
lands  to  be  procured?  The  United  States  had  no 
lands  held  in  common.  Before  the  Confederation 
had  been  formed,  Maryland  had  proposed  to  Con- 
gress that  the  vast  unsettled  western  territory  should 
be  held  as  the  common  property  of  all  the  states,  but 
this  proposition  was  rejected.  Now  Virginia,  if  her 
claim  were  allowed,  had  an  inexhaustible  stock  of  the 
most  desirable  land  in  America  to  draw  upon,  while 
other  states  had  little  or  none.  Hence  she  could 
draw  to  herself  men  willing  to  enlist,  and  other  set- 
tlers, by  liberal  grants  of  land  at  no  cost  to  her  treas- 
ury, while  the  less  fortunate  states  must  buy  from 
her  lands  which,  if  won  at  all,  would  be  won  by  the 
blood  and  treasure  of  all.  By  selling  these  vast  un- 
settled, unmapped  and  unexplored  lands  at  the  most 
moderate  price,  Virginia  would  have  an  unlimited 
source  of  revenue  and  could  dispense  with  taxation, 
and  thus  attracting  all  immigrants  would  grow  to  a 
giant  state,  greater  than  all  the  others  combined — a 
central  orb  to  which  the  others  would  be  insignificant 
satellites.  Both  justice  and  the  public  welfare  pro- 
tested against  such  a  claim,  and  Maryland  steadily 
refused  to  enter  the  Confederation  until  the  matter 


184  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

was  placed  on  an  equitable  basis.  Her  arguments 
carried  weight:  New  York  and  Connecticut — which 
both  had  "back  lands" — approved  the  cession  of  the 
land  to  Congress,  and  at  last  Virginia  yielded,  but 
with  certain  restrictions.  The  Maryland  idea  that 
these  Western  lands  should  be  a  public  domain, 
eventually  to  be  organized  into  sovereign  and  inde- 
pendent states,  finally  prevailed;  this  momentous 
question  was  settled  on  a  basis  of  equity,  and  on 
March  1,  1781,  Maryland  entered  the  Confederation 
as  the  thirteenth  state. 

Maryland's  Part  in  Revolutionary  War. 

Though  down  to  this  time  she  had  been  but  an  ally, 
no  state  had  shown  more  zeal  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  war.  Though  no  considerable  battles  were  fought 
on  Maryland's  soil,  the  Maryland  Line,  as  her  troops 
in  the  Continental  service  were  called,  were  con- 
spicuous in  both  the  Northern  and  Southern  cam- 
paigns. To  recount  their  deeds  would  be  to  write 
the  history  of  the  war,  and  but  a  few  actions  can  be 
mentioned. 

At  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  Aug.  27,  1776,  the 
American  forces  were  defeated  and  scattered  by  the 
overwhelming  force  of  the  enemy,  who  had  turned 
their  flank  and  was  closing  in  around  them.  Their 
capture  was  certain  unless  the  British  could  be  held 
in  check  while  the  remains  of  the  American  force 
could  escape  through  the  marshes ;  and  for  this  des- 
perate service  General  Stirling  chose  the  Maryland 
regiment,  then  commanded  by  Major  Gist.  Though 
the  enemy  outnumbered  them  five  to  one,  this  de- 
voted band  charged  them  again  and  again  until  they 
had  lost  two  hundred  and  fifty-nine  out  of  about  four 
hundred  that  went  into  action,  when,  no  retreat  be- 
ing possible,  they  surrendered,  having  saved  the 
American  army. 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  185 

In  the  disastrous  affair  at  Camden,  South  Caro- 
lina, on  Aug.  16,  1780,  Gist 's  brigade  bore  the  brunt 
of  the  battle.  At  the  Cowpens,  on  Jan.  11,  1781,  the 
British  force  under  Tarleton  had  forced  back,  after 
a  stubborn  resistance,  the  first  line  of  the  Americans, 
who  retired  upon  the  second  line,  composed  of  Mary- 
landers  under  Col.  John  Eager  Howard,  with  some 
Virginia  militia  and  Georgia  riflemen.  This  line 
stood  like  a  rock  and  even  pressed  back  the  enemy, 
when  Tarleton  ordered  up  his  reserve,  extending 
his  line  so  as  to  threaten  Howard's  right  flank,  which 
was  also  threatened  by  a  body  of  cavalry.  Howard 
ordered  his  right  company  to  change  front  to  meet 
this  flank  attack ;  but  the  men,  misunderstanding  the 
order,  moved  slowly  off  to  the  rear.  General  Mor- 
gan, thinking  that  they  were  retreating,  rushed  up 
to  Howard,  who  called  his  attention  to  the  steady  de- 
liberation of  the  movement.  The  British,  confident 
that  the  day  was  theirs,  were  rushing  on  with  tri- 
umphant shouts,  when  Howard  suddenly  halted  his 
men,  faced  them  about,  and  they  delivered  a  deadly 
fire  of  musketry  in  the  very  faces  of  their  pursuers, 
who,  taken  by  surprise,  halted  and  recoiled,  when 
Howard's  men  charged  them  with  the  bayonet  and 
they  broke  and  fled.  The  Marylanders  then  turned 
to  the  right  where  the  combat  was  still  raging,  and 
delivered  one  fierce  charge  upon  which  the  enemy 
surrendered.  At  the  battles  of  Guilford  Courthouse, 
March  15, 1781,  and  at  Eutaw  Springs,  September  8, 
the  Maryland  Line  played  a  distinguished  part.  In 
the  latter  engagement  the  British,  though  technically 
victorious,  in  that  they  held  the  field,  were  really  de- 
feated, for  they  were  compelled  to  retreat  in  haste 
to  Charleston,  destroying  their  stores  and  abandon- 
ing their  wounded.  In  this  battle  Colonel  Howard 
received  a  wound  which  disabled  him  for  the  rest  of 
the  war. 


186  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

Maryland's  Condition  at  Close  of  Revolutionary  War. 

The  Treaty  of  Paris,  June  20, 1783,  formally  ended 
the  war,  which  had  been  virtually  ended  by  the  sur- 
render of  Cornwallis  on  Oct.  19,  1781;  and  in  No- 
vember, Congress,  by  invitation  of  the  Maryland 
legislature,  met  in  Annapolis,  and  there,  on  Decem- 
ber 23,  in  the  Senate  chamber  of  the  State  House, 
Washington  resigned  his  commission. 

Although  Maryland  had  been  spared  the  devasta- 
tions of  hostile  armies,  yet  the  war  had  been  a  sore 
burden  upon  her.  She  had  strained  every  nerve  to 
furnish  not  only  men,  but  supplies  to  the  Continental 
army,  and  at  the  end  of  the  war  found  herself  loaded 
down  with  debt,  while  in  addition  she  had  to  shoulder 
her  part  of  the  debt  of  the  United  States,  then  tot- 
tering on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  The  usual  pal- 
liative, the  issuance  of  bills  of  credit,  had  had  the 
inevitable  result :  the  paper  money  had  lost  nearly  all 
purchasing  power.  But  apart  from  direct  taxation, 
the  state  had  two  assets :  the  bank  stock  held  in  Eng- 
land and  the  confiscated  lands. 

The  former  was  a  large  fund  accumulated  in 
colonial  times  and  invested  in  Bank  of  England 
stock,  which  was  held  by  trustees.  As  this  fund  had 
been  deposited  in  time  of  peace  and  bore  no  relation 
to  any  hostile  measures,  it  was  thought  that,  since 
peace  had  returned,  the  state  would  have  no  difficulty 
in  recovering  it.  But  the  trustees,  acting  under  legal 
advice,  refused  to  honor  drafts  upon  it,  and  for  the 
time  being  it  was  sequestered,  though  part  of  it  was 
eventually  paid. 

Then  there  were  the  confiscated  lands.  In  1780  a 
law  was  passed  confiscating  the  landed  property  of 
loyalists  who  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  state,  including,  of  course,  the  ungranted  lands 
of  Henry  Harford,  the  last  Proprietary.  But  the 
state  did  not  assume  the  position  of  the  Proprietary 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1888.  187 

or  the  Crown  as  sovereign  landlord;  it  abolished  all 
quit-rents,  and  the  original  freeholds  became  allodial. 

The  Tories  gave  much  trouble  throughout  the  war, 
and  several  conspiracies  were  sharply  put  down. 
But  there  were  also  among  them  men  who  were  no 
conspirators,  but  some  of  the  best  inhabitants  of  the 
state.  Looking  at  the  matter  now  calmly,  we  can  see 
that  the  Loyalists  may  have  been  as  patriotic,  in  the 
sense  of  wishing  well  to  the  country,  as  their  op- 
ponents. They  believed  that  the  British  constitu- 
tional monarchy  was  the  best  government  upon 
earth,  and  they  thought  it  little  less  than  madness  to 
sever  the  ancient  ties  and  embark  on  the  unknown 
sea  of  democracy  because  an  arrogant  ministry  and 
a  purblind  Parliament  had  passed  a  distasteful 
measure.  They  could  not  conceive  but  that  the  disci- 
plined force  of  Great  Britain  must  be  victorious  over 
raw  colonials;  and  the  miseries  of  war  seemed  to 
them  too  heavy  a  price  to  pay  for  an  abstract  princi- 
ple and  a  more  than  doubtful  issue.  But  speculative 
views  had  to  yield  to  the  logic  of  circumstances ;  and 
the  Loyalists  had  to  choose  between  swearing  alle- 
giance to  the  state  or  leaving  it  and  forfeiting  their 
lands. 

But  Maryland's  richest  assets  were  her  soil,  her 
climate,  her  waters  and  her  energetic  inhabitants. 
With  peace,  prosperity  began  to  grow.  Immigrants 
flocked  to  her  lands,  especially  the  rich  lands  of  the 
Piedmont  region.  Commerce,  which  had  been  ham- 
pered by  the  Acts  of  Navigation,  and  manufactures, 
which  had  been  repressed  by  British  jealousy,  now 
made  rapid  strides.  Better  facilities  of  transporta- 
tion became  necessary,  and  roads  and  canals  were 
planned  and  in  part  constructed.  Shipbuilding 
throve  with  commerce,  for  the  European  war  follow- 
ing the  French  Kevolution  produced  a  demand  for 
American  goods,  and  these  were  now  carried  in 


188  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

American  vessels.  The  Baltimore  "clippers,"  ves- 
sels built  on  the  lines  of  the  swift  Bay  craft,  became 
familiar  in  every  port  in  Europe,  and  maintained 
their  reputation  for  three-quarters  of  a  century. 

James  Rumsey. 

The  idea  which  was  finally  to  supersede  them  and 
to  revolutionize  the  navigation  of  the  world  had  its 
birth  in  a  Maryland  brain.  James  Rumsey,  born 
about  1742  in  Cecil  county,  who  had  shown  much 
fertility  of  invention  in  engineering  and  mechanics, 
conceived  the  notion  of  propelling  vessels  by  steam 
power.  His  first  idea,  which  may  have  been  sug- 
gested by  the  curious  locomotion  of  the  squids  and 
cattle-fishes,  was  to  drive  his  boat  by  a  jet  of 
water  drawn  in  at  the  bow  by  a  steam  pump  and 
forcibly  ejected  at  the  stern.  With  a  boat  of  this 
kind  he  made  a  public  experimental  test  on  the  Po- 
tomac in  1786,  which  was  considered  successful,  the 
boat  having  been  driven  against  the  current  at  the 
rate  of  five  miles  an  hour.  There  being  no  suitable 
machine  shops  in  Maryland,  Bumsey  went  to  Eng- 
land to  improve  his  device,  on  which  he  was  still  en- 
gaged when  he  died  by  apoplexy  in  1792.  As  his 
plans  have  not  been  preserved,  we  cannot  say 
whether  he  adhered  to  or  departed  from  his  original 
principle. 

Maryland's  Fart  in  the  Formation  of  the  United  States 
Constitution. 

The  Articles  of  Confederation,  which  worked  mod- 
erately well  while  all  interests  had  to  be  subordi- 
nated to  the  exigencies  of  war,  proved  unsatisfactory 
in  times  of  peace,  and  steps  were  taken  to  amend 
Into  the  history  of  the  Constitution  of  1787, 
the  struggle  of  opposing  interests  of  which  it 
was  the  outcome,  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter.  But 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  189 

it  is  not  amiss  to  recall  the  fact  that  Luther  Martin, 
the  able  attorney-general,  withdrew  from  the  con- 
vention, and  with  almost  prophetic  vision  laid  before 
the  legislature  the  dangers  lurking  in  the  provisions 
of  the  compact.  He  pointed  out  that  the  Federal 
government,  impatient  of  its  restraints,  would  tend 
to  enlarge  its  own  powers  by  construction  until  the 
creature  became  the  master  of  its  creators;  that  a 
power  given  for  the  purpose  of  providing  a  Federal 
revenue  would  be  extended  to  a  control  of  all  com- 
merce and  traffic ;  that  the  newly  invented  crime  of 
"treason  against  the  United  States"  might  be 
stretched  to  include  anyone  whom  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment was  pleased  to  consider  an  enemy,  and 
might  make  men  traitors  to  their  own  states ;  that  the 
inequality  of  representation  would  destroy  the  equal- 
ity of  the  states,  and  that  in  practice  the  smaller 
states  would  be  overridden  by  the  larger — predic- 
tions which  have  since  been  fulfilled  to  the  letter. 
Nor  was  Martin  the  only  member  gifted  with  pre- 
vision; Patrick  Henry,  Pinckney,  Mason,  William- 
son and  Grayson  all  foresaw  the  inevitable  results, 
and  uttered  unavailing  warnings.  The  Tenth 
amendment,  which  it  was  fondly  hoped  would  check 
Federal  aggrandisement,  has  proved  about  as  effi- 
cacious as  a  line  drawn  on  the  sand  to  stop  the  ad- 
vancing tide,  or  a  notice  of  "No  admittance"  to  a 
burglar. 

But  the  constitution  was  probably  the  best  com- 
promise that  could  have  been  accepted;  and  after 
all,  the  best  constitutions  have  value  only  so  long  as 
men  recognize  the  sanctity  of  solemnly  plighted 
faith.  Maryland,  not  without  misgivings,  ratified  it 
on  April  28,  1788. 

In  1791  Maryland  and  Virginia  ceded  to  the  United 
States,  for  a  permanent  seat  of  government,  a  dis- 
trict ten  miles  square,  lying  on  both  sides  of  the 


100  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

Potomac.  The  public  buildings  were  all  to  be  erected 
on  the  Maryland  side.  In  1846  the  part  to  the  south 
of  the  Potomac  was  retroceded  to  Virginia. 

Maryland's  Part  in  the  War  of  1812. 

The  war  of  the  Revolution  had  left  bitter  feelings 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  several  things 
combined  to  exasperate  animosity.  England  was  at 
war  with  France,  the  friend  of  America,  and  Amer- 
ican privateers,  sailing  under  letters  of  marque  is- 
sued by  French  consuls,  had  wrought  havoc  with 
British  commerce ;  American  ships,  as  neutrals,  car- 
ried on  the  trade  of  both  belligerents,  and  it  was 
peculiarly  galling  to  England  to  see  the  products  of 
her  colonies  carried  thus  to  hostile  ports.  The  Brit- 
ish government  ordered  the  capture  of  ships  so  em- 
ployed, and  Congress  retaliated  by  restricting  trade 
with  Great  Britain.  The  counter- stroke  to  this  was 
the  Order  in  Council,  declaring  the  whole  coast  of 
Europe  in  a  state  of  blockade,  to  which  Napoleon 
replied  by  his  Milan  decree,  confiscating  all  neutral 
vessels  that  carried  British  goods,  had  touched  at 
British  ports,  or  even  been  searched  by  British 
cruisers ;  so  that,  between  the  hammer  and  the  anvil, 
American  commerce  was  crushed  out  of  existence. 

Still  more  irritating  was  the  alleged  right  of 
search.  England  was  desperately  in  want  of  seamen 
for  her  navy,  and  claimed  the  right  to  overhaul 
American  ships  on  the  high  seas  and  take  from  them 
British  deserters.  The  captains,  of  course,  recog- 
nized a  deserter  in  any  able-bodied  man,  clapped 
him  in  irons  and  carried  him  off  despite  all  protests 
and  proofs.  A  storm  of  indignation  arose.  One 
case  was  peculiarly  flagrant:  three  deserters  from 
a  British  ship  lying  off  Annapolis  had  enlisted  on 
board  the  American  frigate  Chesapeake,  Commodore 
Barren.  Their  return  was  demanded,  but  the  men 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  191 

proved  that  they  were  American  citizens  who  had 
been  forcibly  impressed,  and  the  demand  was  re- 
fused. When  the  Chesapeake  sailed  she  was  brought 
to  off  the  Capes  by  the  British  frigate  Leopard, 
whose  commander  not  only  demanded  the  men,  but 
also  claimed  the  right  to  search  for  other  deserters, 
and  on  Barren's  refusal,  opened  fire,  killing  and 
wounding  twenty-nine  men.  The  Chesapeake  was 
entirely  unprepared  for  action,  and  Barren  sur- 
rendered. This  attack  on  a  ship  of  the  navy,  in  time 
of  peace,  filled  the  cup  of  exasperation  to  overflow- 
ing, and  war  was  declared  on  June  18,  1812. 

The  incidents  of  that  war,  except  so  far  as  they 
concerned  Maryland,  need  not  be  detailed  here. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Eevolution,  Maryland,  as 
has  been  shown,  was  treated  with  great  leniency,  but 
now  she  was  marked  out  for  special  vengeance. 
Most  of  the  swift  privateers  that  had  preyed  on 
British  commerce  had  sailed  from  the  Chesapeake, 
and  Baltimore  in  particular,  was  regarded  as  a  nest 
of  pirates  to  be  destroyed  without  mercy. 

Maryland  was  quite  aware  of  this,  and  began  or- 
ganizing her  militia  and  getting  ready  for  defense. 
As  it  was  the  constitutional  duty  of  Congress  to  as- 
sist in  repelling  invasions,  she  imagined  that  she 
might  rely  on  Federal  aid  if  her  own  force  was  insuf- 
ficient. In  1813  this  was  to  be  tested.  Admiral 
Cockburn  with  a  British  fleet  sailed  up  the  Bay, 
ravaging  both  shores ;  and  as  there  was  little  doubt 
that  Baltimore  was  the  objective  point,  the  Federal 
government  was  appealed  to  for  aid.  It  turned  a 
deaf  ear ;  New  York  and  Virginia  had  more  votes  in 
Congress,  and  to  them  aid  was  sent,  while  Maryland 
was  left  to  shift  for  herself.  Luther  Martin  had 
proved  a  true  prophet  in  this  instance,  and  others 
were  to  come. 

Baltimore,  however,  undismayed,  set  about  her 


192  THE  HISTOKY  OF  MARYLAND. 

preparations  for  defense,  while  Cockburn  was  plun- 
dering farms  and  villages,  not  always  with  impunity. 
The  Navy  department  at  last  roused  itself  to  the  ex- 
tent of  placing  a  small  flotilla  of  gunboats  for  coast 
defense  under  the  command  of  Capt.  Joshua  Barney, 
an  old  soldier  of  the  Revolution.  These  boats  could 
take  refuge  in  shallow  waters;  so  Cockburn  fitted 
out  a  fleet  of  barges  which  encountered  Barney  in 
Battle  Creek,  Calvert  county,  but  were  driven  off 
with  loss.  But  while  the  admiral  was  burning  farm- 
houses and  carrying  off  pigs  and  chickens,  he  was 
waiting  for  a  reinforcement  of  Wellington's  Penin- 
sula veterans,  who  arrived  in  August,  1814,  under 
the  command  of  General  Boss.  The  plan  now  was  to 
strike  a  blow  at  Washington  and  then  attend  to 
Baltimore. 

As  the  enemy's  troops  could  now  be  brought  by 
way  of  the  Potomac  and  Patuxent  within  easy  strik- 
ing distance  of  the  capital,  the  Federal  government 
awoke  from  its  comatose  condition  long  enough  to 
entrust  the  defense  to  General  Winder,  of  Baltimore, 
a  capable  officer,  and  this  done,  relapsed  into  leth- 
argy, ignoring  all  Winder's  appeals  for  calling 
out  the  militia  and  strengthening  the  strategic 
points. 

Cockburn  sent  his  transports  up  the  Patuxent,  and 
Barney,  whose  flotilla  was  in  that  river,  disembarked 
his  men,  burned  his  boats  and  marched  to  Bladens- 
burg,  within  six  miles  of  Washington,  where  a  force 
of  Maryland  and  Virginia  militia  had  prepared  to 
make  a  stand,  to  whom  he  brought  the  aid  of  his  men 
and  a  small  battery  of  two  guns.  Here,  on  August 
24,  Boss  made  his  attack.  The  defense  at  first  was 
spirited,  Barney's  battery  in  particular  rendering 
admirable  service,  but  the  steady  onset  of  the  British 
veterans  proved  irresistible,  and  the  Americans 
broke  and  fled.  Barney's  battery  held  its  own  until 


MAEYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  193 

its  gallant  commander  was  struck  down  by  a  musket- 
ball.  He  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  British,  but  im- 
mediately paroled  by  General  Ross.  Winder,  with 
what  men  he  could  rally,  set  out  for  Baltimore,  and 
Boss  entered  Washington  and  burned  the  capitol  and 
public  buildings. 

Baltimore  knew  that  now  her  time  had  come,  and 
began  to  make  ready,  the  defense  being  entrusted  to 
Generals  Smith,  Winder  and  Strieker.  All  citizens 
turned  out  to  construct  a  line  of  earthworks  to  the 
east  of  the  city,  while  to  resist  the  attack  by  water 
they  strengthened  Fort  McHenry  at  the  mouth  of 
the  channel  with  several  small  batteries,  and  sank 
vessels  in  the  channel  itself.  On  Sunday,  Sept.  11, 
1814,  about  nine  thousand  British  troops  under  Boss 
disembarked  at  North  Point,  about  fourteen  miles 
southeast  of  Baltimore,  and  took  up  their  line  of 
march  the  next  morning.  General  Strieker  led  out  a 
force  along  the  Philadelphia  road  to  reconnoitre,  and 
on  news  of  the  enemy 's  approach  formed  a  line  of 
battle  across  the  road.  A  small  scouting  party,  in- 
cluding a  few  riflemen,  was  sent  ahead,  who  suddenly 
encountered  the  British  advance  and  a  sharp  skirm- 
ish followed.  Boss,  thinking  from  the  firing  that  the 
Americans  might  be  in  greater  force  than  he  had 
supposed,  rode  to  the  front  to  see  the  situation,  and 
was  mortally  wounded  by  a  shot  from  the  woods 
which  lined  the  road.  Colonel  Brooke,  the  second  in 
command,  resumed  the  march,  and  Strieker  fell 
back  to  a  position  near  the  city.  This  was  the  battle 
of  North  Point,  in  itself  an  insignificant  skirmish, 
but  important  in  that  it  replaced  the  able  and  daring 
Boss  by  the  cautious  and  somewhat  pedantic  Brooke. 

On  the  next  morning  Brooke  examined  the  de- 
fenses of  the  city,  and  finding  them  stronger  than 
he  had  expected,  determined  to  postpone  the  attack 
until  he  had  tfie  co-operation  of  the  fleet,  which  was 

Vol.  1—13. 


194  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

to  bombard  the  city  from  the  south  while  he  stormed 
the  earthworks  on  the  east. 

But  a  hitch  occurred  in  these  arrangements.  On 
Tuesday  morning  fifteen  vessels,  including  five  bomb- 
ketches,  arrived  within  about  two  miles  of  Fort 
McHenry  and  opened  a  bombardment  to  which  the 
Fort  made  no  reply,  as  its  guns  could  not  carry  that 
distance ;  but  all  attempts  to  pass  or  to  take  it  in  the 
rear  were  repelled  by  a  destructive  fire.  All  that 
Tuesday  night  Baltimoreans  listened  to  the  bursting- 
shells,  yet  still  more  afraid  of  a  cessation  of  firing1 
which  would  announce  the  surrender  of  the  fort  and 
the  doom  of  the  city.  But  Wednesday's  sun  saw  the 
flag  still  flying ;  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  fleet  drew 
off  and  the  naval  attack  was  abandoned.  Brooke, 
on  learning  of  the  failure  of  the  fleet,  withdrew  his 
land  force,  and  Baltimore  had  seen  for  the  first  and 
"ast  time  the  face  of  a  foreign  enemy. 

Just  before  the  bombardment,  Francis  Scott  Key, 
i  young  lawyer  of  Frederick,  had  gone  with  a  flag 
of  truce  on  board  Admiral  Cochrane's  ship  in  the 
endeavor  to  procure  the  release  of  a  captured  friend. 
He  was  received  with  courtesy,  but  detained  on 
board  his  own  vessel  until  the  attack  was  over,  and 
there  all  night  he  watched  the  bombardment.  When 
morning  showed  the  flag  still  flying  and  the  baffled 
fleet  drawing  off,  his  joy  found  expression  in  a  song 
— "The  Star-spangled  Banner." 

The  war  now  dwindled  to  attacks  on  property; 
plundering  raids  on  the  one  side  and  the  ceaseless 
activity  of  privateers  on  the  other,  until  ended  by 
the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  Dec.  24,  1814. 

Growth  of  Industries,  1815-1880. 

Peace  being  restored,  a  great  expansion  of  indus- 
try began.  Commerce  and  manufactures  flourished, 
and  population  grew.  The  mineral  riches  of  the 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  195 

state,  especially  coal  and  iron,  began  to  be  utilized. 
Baltimore,  the  centre  of  industry,  rapidly  increased, 
and  was  now  the  third  city  of  the  United  States. 
Tobacco,  so  long  the  staple  product  of  Maryland, 
•was  far  outstripped  by  corn  and  the  cereals,  and 
Baltimore  became  the  first  flour  market  of  the  world. 
Marylanders  were  keenly  alive  to  the  importance  of 
the  growing  west,  and  were  determined  to  strain 
every  nerve  to  make  Baltimore  the  Atlantic  outlet 
of  the  western  trade,  and  a  canal  was  planned  to 
connect  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Ohio.  But  what  es- 
pecially impressed  the  popular  imagination  was  the 
opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  railway 
in  England.  Such  a  road  from  Baltimore  to  the 
Ohio  was  planned,  the  stock  eagerly  subscribed,  and 
the  first  stone  was  laid,  with  imposing  ceremonies, 
on  July  4,  1828,  by  the  venerable  Charles  Carroll, 
then  over  ninety  years  of  age  and  the  last  surviving 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
cars  were  at  first  drawn  by  horses,  but  in  1830  steam 
locomotives  of  a  very  primitive  pattern  were  intro- 
duced. 

The  natural  advantages  of  Baltimore  as  a  com- 
mercial and  manufacturing  centre  were  early  recog- 
nized. Placed  in  a  mild  climate,  at  the  junction  of 
the  Piedmont  plateau  and  the  Coastal  plain,  near  the 
head  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  where  the  estuary  of 
the  Patapsco  forms  a  safe  and  capacious  harbor 
where  vessels  of  all  sizes  can  load  and  discharge  in 
the  city  itself,  she  occupies  an  almost  ideal  site  for 
a  great  commercial  city.  The  great  Bay,  two  hun- 
dred miles  in  length  and  indented  with  rivers  and 
estuaries,  furnishes  alone,  from  the  products  of  land 
and  water,  an  extensive  trade.  The  natural  routes 
of  trade  from  the  west  and  southwest  converge  to 
her.  The  men  of  1824  were  awake  to  these  ad- 
vantages. 


196  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

Throughout  the  War  of  Independence  Maryland's 
confidence  in  Washington  had  been  unbounded  and 
her  devotion  ardent,  and  the  men  of  this  time  deter- 
mined to  perpetuate — not  his  glory,  but  their  devo- 
tion to  his  memory  in  some  worthy  memorial.  A 
majestic  monument  of  white  marble  was  determined 
on.  A  beautiful  site  in  Baltimore  was  given  by  Col. 
John  Eager  Howard,  and  the  monument,  crowned  by 
a  colossal  statue  of  Washington  in  the  act  of  sur- 
rendering his  commission,  was  completed  in  1830. 

Slavery  in  Maryland. 

Some  of  the  energies  that  had  been  engaged  in  the 
Kevolutionary  War,  when  deprived,  by  its  close,  of 
an  external  field  of  activity,  found  employment  in 
the  domestic  field  of  politics.  The  undying  issue  of 
freedom  against  restraint  is  always  with  us,  and  as 
there  was  no  longer  a  Proprietary  government  or  a 
British  ministry  to  oppose,  one-half  the  people  set 
itself  in  opposition  to  the  other.  This  divergence 
showed  itself  in  the  making  of  the  Federal  constitu- 
tion, where  the  party  which  desired  a  strong  central- 
ized Federal  government  was  opposed  to  the  party 
which  desired  the  utmost  freedom  compatible  with 
order.  There  were  also  more  concrete  antagonisms 
— the  Northern  states  were  largely  commercial  and 
manufacturing,  and  the  Southern  states  agricultural. 
Well  in  the  background,  as  yet,  lay  the  question  of 
slavery.  This  existed  in  all  the  states,  but  at  the 
North  the  number  of  slaves  was  insignificant,  while 
all  the  industries  of  the  South  rested  upon  slave 
labor.  The  disparity  of  interests  came  out  in  the 
apportionment  of  Federal  representation  on  the 
basis  of  population,  the  North  contending  that  the 
slave  was  property  and  not  to  be  counted  as  a  person, 
while  the  South  maintained  that  he  was  a  person  and 
a  producer.  It  ended  in  a  compromise,  illogical,  as 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  197 

compromises  usually  are — the  slave  population  was 
to  be  reckoned  at  only  three-fifths  of  its  actual 
numbers. 

The  importation  of  negro  slaves  into  Maryland 
began  at  a  very  early  period.  They  were  found  very 
useful  as  farm  laborers,  but  they  were  not  brought 
in  in  any  considerable  numbers  until  after  the  treaty 
of  Utrecht  in  1713,  which  put  the  African  slave  trade 
into  English  hands.  As  the  very  lucrative  trade 
with  Africa  depended  upon  a  market  for  the  slaves, 
they  were  forced  upon  the  southern  colonies.  These 
began  to  look  with  apprehension  on  the  influx  of 
negroes,  whose  number  in  Maryland  had  risen  to 
50,000  by  1761;  but  all  efforts  to  restrict  their  im- 
portation were  frustrated  by  England.  Their  nat- 
ural increase,  also,  was  more  rapid  than  that  of  the 
whites,  and  there  would  have  been  grounds  for  the 
gravest  alarm  but  for  their  peaceful  and  inoffensive 
disposition.  Crimes  of  violence  were  unknown 
among  them,  and  as  for  their  ineradicable  propensity 
to  pilfering,  that  was  accepted  as  a  part  of  their 
nature. 

Political  Parties. 

So  slavery  in  itself  was  not  at  that  time  a  political 
question.  But  the  great  fundamental  issue  which, 
in  the  Thirteenth  century,  assembled  men  at  Eunny- 
mede,  in  the  Seventeenth  signed  the  Petition  of 
Right,  and  in  the  Eighteenth  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, still  remained  alive.  It  presented  itself 
in  various  concrete  forms  such  as  the  Tariff,  Internal 
Improvements,  the  Bank  of  the  United  States;  but 
whatever  form  it  assumed,  it  was  always  funda- 
mentally the  same,  the  increase  of  the  powers  of 
government  at  the  expense  of  the  liberties  of  the 
people.  In  this  country,  owing  to  our  complex  form 
of  a  union  of  free  states,  each  state  being  the  people 
as  an  organized  political  unit,  and  the  people  of  the 


198  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

United  States  as  such  having  no  political  existence, 
it  took  the  shape  of  an  issue  between  the  Federal 
government  and  the  states. 

These  two  antagonistic  principles  were  embodied 
in  two  parties:  the  Federalists  (afterwards  Whigs) 
and  the  Democrats.  They  were  great  and  legitimate 
parties,  each  favoring  a  policy  which  professed  to 
be  for  the  good  of  all,  and  not  for  that  of  a  part. 
Consequently  there  were  many  Whigs  at  the  South 
and  Democrats  at  the  North,  and  there  was  no  sec- 
tional cleavage,  though  there  was,  and  always  had 
been,  a  consciousness  of  opposing  interests. 

In  Maryland  the  parties  were  pretty  equally  bal- 
anced, and  elections  often  turned  on  the  personal 
popularity  of  the  candidates.  From  1788  to  1801, 
Federalist  governors  were  elected;  from  1801  to 
1811,  Democratic;  from  1811  to  1818,  Federalist,  and 
from  1818  to  1833,  Democratic.  These  alternations, 
however,  cannot  be  taken  as  exactly  recording 
changes  of  public  sentiment,  as  these  governors  were 
elected  by  the  Assembly. 

State  Convention,  1837. 

In  1837  the  state  constitution  was  reformed;  the 
State  Council,  a  relic  of  Proprietary  rule,  abolished, 
and  provision  made  for  electing  the  governor  and 
state  senators  by  popular  vote. 

Work  of  George  Peabody. 

The  whole  country  had  entered  ardently  upon  a 
period  of  commercial  expansion,  and  perhaps  no 
state  more  recklessly  than  Maryland.  Railroads  and 
canals  on  a  gigantic  scale  were  planned,  and  the  credit 
of  the  state  pledged  for  vast  sums,  largely  loans 
effected  in  Europe,  the  mere  interest  on  which  was  a 
staggering  load  to  carry.  The  collapse  of  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  showing  the  pernicious  nature 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  199 

of  a  scheme  which  placed  the  credit  and  prosperity 
of  the  whole  country  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men,  came 
as  a  terrible  blow  to  Maryland.  Universal  bank- 
ruptcy seemed  imminent.  Maryland  struggled  for 
five  years  under  her  burden  of  debt,  and  in  1842 
found  herself  unable  to  pay  the  interest  due  her 
creditors.  Then  it  was  that  George  Peabody,  a 
wealthy  banker  of  London,  but  once  a  citizen  of 
Maryland,  rendered  the  state  a  service  which  entitles 
his  memory  to  lasting  gratitude.  By  the  influence 
of  his  high  character,  even  more  than  his  wealth,  he 
succeeded  in  restoring  confidence  in  the  good  faith 
of  the  state.  Governor  Pratt  impressed  upon  the 
people  the  duty  of  maintaining  the  public  credit  at 
all  costs,  and  prevailed  on  the  legislature  to  impose, 
and  the  citizens  to  submit  to,  a  heavy  rate  of  taxa- 
tion. With  this  and  with  rigid  economy,  arrears  of 
interest  were  paid  off  and  regular  payments  re- 
sumed. For  his  great  services  which  saved  the  honor 
of  the  state,  Mr.  Peabody  refused  to  accept  any 
compensation. 

Slavery  a  Political  Issue. 

In  politics  apparently  new  issues  kept  arising,  but 
it  was  as  in  a  kaleidoscope  where  the  same  pieces 
are  arranged  in  new  figures.  As  the  powers  dele- 
gated to  the  Federal  government  were  strictly  de- 
fined and  limited  by  the  constitution,  those  who 
desired  to  enlarge  them  relied  upon  " implied  pow- 
ers" and  a  "liberal  construction."  If  the  giant  could 
not  be  let  loose  at  once,  his  chain  might  be  gradually 
slackened  and  weakened.  The  Democrats  main- 
tained that  the  only  safety  lay  in  a  strict  construc- 
tion. This  war  might  have  been  waged  at  the  ballot- 
box  for  many  years  had  not  a  question  arisen  which 
properly  had  nothing  to  do  with  Federal  politics,  but 
which  was  adroitly  used  to  convert  friends  into  foes 
and  dissentience  into  hate. 


200  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

The  abstract  question  whether  negro  slavery  is  in 
itself  right  or  wrong  need  not  occupy  us  here.  Who- 
ever knows  the  negro  race  knows  that  if  they  co- 
exist in  considerable  numbers  with  the  whites,  they 
must  be  held  under  firm  control,  or  the  ruin  of  both 
will  result.  During  the  colonial  period,  and  for  more 
than  half  a  century  of  the  republic,  nobody  doubted 
this.  In  1776  slavery  existed  in  all  the  thirteen 
states.  But  while  the  consenus  was  universal  as 
to  the  status  of  negroes  born  in  servitude,  there  were 
differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  importation  of 
slaves.  This  Maryland,  in  colonial  times,  had  vainly 
tried  to  check,  as  has  been  shown. 

Whether  the  negroes  were  worse  or  better  off  as 
slaves  to  white  Christians  than  they  had  been  as 
slaves  to  black  savages  is  a  matter  of  no  consequence ; 
it  was  certainly  a  pernicious  system  that  was  pour- 
ing into  the  country  an  inferior  and  unassimilable 
race,  naturally  incapable  of  progress.  This  was  so 
apparent  that  all  the  states  abolished  the  slave  trade 
in  1808.  But  there  remained  another  cause  of  anxi- 
ety; under  slavery  the  blacks  multiplied  so  rapidly 
as  to  give  rise  to  grave  apprehensions.  In  Mary- 
land, from  36,000  in  1748  they  rose  to  nearly  50.000 
in  1761.  In  1790  they  were  34  per  cent,  of  the  popu- 
lation," and  38  per  cent,  in  1810.  This  was  the  high- 
water  mark,  after  which  the  ratio  steadily  declined, 
and  now  (1908)  it  is  only  19  per  cent. 

As  there  were  many  slaves  at  the  South  and  few 
or  none  at  the  North,  this  marked  a  distinction  be- 
tween the  sections,  but  it  bore  no  relation  to  the  an- 
tagonistic interests.  It  mattered  nothing  to  the 
North  with  what  kind  of  labor  the  cotton  was  grown 
that  fed  her  mills  and  paid  for  her  products,  any 
more  than  it  mattered  to  the  South  whether  the  fish- 
ermen of  Nantucket  or  the  shoemakers  of  Lynn  were 
white  or  black. 


MARYLAND  FKOM  1776  TO  1868.  201 

But  another  question  came  in:  the  Whig,  or  old 
Federalist  party,  could  not  hope  to  fix  itself  immov- 
ably in  power  unless  it  could  unite  the  whole  North 
against  the  South.  The  slavery  question  seemed  to 
offer  them  the  means  of  doing  this. 

As  early  as  1789  there  had  been  a  society  formed, 
having  as  its  object  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the 
slaves;  but  as  this  would  only  change  their  status 
without  lessening  their  numbers,  it  met  with  but 
little  favor.  A  more  rational  idea  was  that  of  col- 
onization in  Africa,  and  a  colony  for  manumitted 
slaves  was  founded  by  Marylanders  in  1821.  Great 
hopes  were  entertained  of  this  colony,  but  it  was 
found  that  few  were  willing  to  go  and  fewer  still  to 
stay;  and  those  who  did  stay,  removed  from  the  re- 
straints and  influence  of  white  society,  retrograded 
toward  their  natural  level. 

A  number  of  persons  who  advocated  the  abolition 
of  slavery  by  law,  let  the  consequences  be  what  they 
might,  attempted  to  form  a  political  party  in  1839, 
and  in  speeches  and  through  the  press  uttered  fiery 
denunciations  of  a  state  of  things  of  which  they  had 
no  knowledge,  and  depicted  horrors  which  existed 
only  in  imagination.  But  they  soon  found  out  that 
a  political  party  cannot  be  founded  on  disinterested 
philanthropy,  nor  could  they  persuade  the  Northern 
people  that  they  had  anything  to  gain  by  ruining 
their  best  customer.  Naturally,  the  party  that 
wanted  an  issue  and  the  issue  that  wanted  a  party 
were  drawn  together  by  irresistible  attraction.  The 
party  whose  aim  was  to  secure  perpetual  supremacy 
for  the  North  saw  what  use  could  be  made  of  this 
question  by  assuming  high  moral  grounds  and  ap- 
pealing to  men's  passions.  The  former  Federalists, 
now  Whigs,  assimilated  the  Abolitionists  and  became 
the  Republican  party.  But  still  the  South  could  not 
believe  that  these  violent  threats  and  denunciations 


202  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

reflected  any  general  sentiment  of  the  Northern 
people. 

The  attempt  of  John  Brown  in  1859,  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  to  arouse  and  arm  the  negroes  against  the 
whites  was  like  a  flash  of  lightning  in  the  night,  re- 
vealing the  whole  situation.  For  Brown  was  not  a 
half-crazed  fanatic,  nor  was  his  plan  merely  to  liber- 
ate a  handful  of  negroes.  He  and  his  supporters  be- 
lieved that  the  blacks  throughout  the  whole  South 
could  be  roused  to  revolt  if  they  had  a  daring  leader, 
and  that  it  only  needed  to  strike  a  blow  to  start  an- 
other massacre  of  Santo  Domingo.  And  when  the 
press,  the  pulpit  and  the  rostrum  at  the  North  rang 
with  praises  for  the  attempt  and  lamentations  over 
its  failure,  it  was  natural  to  conclude  that  its  success 
would  have  been  hailed  with  general  joy. 

The  position  of  Maryland  at  this  time  was  very 
painful.  Her  people  were  devoted  to  the  constitu- 
tion and  the  Union.  She  was  a  part  of  the  South, 
but  had  many  close  ties  with  the  North.  There  was 
hardly  an  advocate  of  secession  within  her  borders, 
and  even  later,  when  it  was  seen  that  the  secession 
of  some  of  the  states  was  inevitable,  none  but  the  un^ 
thinking  desired  that  Maryland  should  secede.  It 
was  clear  that  as  the  Federal  navy  could  control  the 
Chesapeake  and  its  waterways,  and  the  whole  north- 
ern border  lay  open  to  the  Federal  army,  the  seces- 
sion of  the  state  would  be  followed  by  her  immediate 
subjugation — a  heavy  blow  to  the  Confederacy  at 
the  very  opening  of  hostilities. 

Maryland  in  the  War  of  Secession. 

Men's  minds  being  thus  agitated,  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter  on  April  14,  1861,  and  the  President's  call 
for  troops,  created  intense  excitement.  On  the  19th 
a  body  of  troops  from  Pennsylvania  and  Massachu- 
setts, on  their  way  to  Washington,  were  received  by 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  203 

an  angry  crowd  who  placed  obstructions  on  the  track 
and  would  not  allow  the  cars  to  pass,  which  were 
then  run  back  to  the  President  Street  station.  The 
Mayor  and  Marshal  of  Police  were  well  aware  of 
the  danger,  and  had  nearly  the  whole  police  force  of 
the  city  on  the  ground.  The  commanding  officer  of 
the  Sixth  Massachusetts  Regiment,  despite  the  warn- 
ings of  the  Mayor  and  Marshal,  determined  to  march 
his  men  through  the  city  to  Camden  station,  where 
cars  were  awaiting  them.  The  police  formed  an  es- 
cort and  the  Mayor  marched  at  the  head  of  the  col- 
umn along  a  street  lined  with  spectators,  most  of 
whom  had  been  attracted  by  mere  curiosity,  to  whom 
he  earnestly  appealed  to  refrain  from  hostile  demon- 
strations. Excitement  grew;  the  crowd  was  un- 
armed, but  stones  were  thrown,  striking  some  of  the 
soldiers.  The  order  was  given  to  fire  and  several 
citizens  fell.  The  soldiers,  as  they  advanced,  kept  up 
an  irregular  fire,  even  shooting  up  and  down  cross- 
streets  at  persons  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
affray.  This  roused  the  people  to  fury.  Numbers 
came  running  at  the  sound  of  the  firing,  and  the 
troops  would  have  fared  badly  had  not  the  escort  of 
police  confronted  the  crowd  with  drawn  revolvers. 
In  this  way  the  column  reached  Camden  station, 
where  they  took  refuge  in  the  cars.  A  few  miles 
beyond  Baltimore  they  fired  at  and  killed  a  citizen 
who  was  fishing  in  the  Patapsco,  and  had  not  even 
heard  of  the  outbreak.  In  this  unhappy  affair  twelve 
citizens  and  four  soldiers  were  killed. 

The  Northern  press  breathed  fire  and  slaughter, 
and  demanded  that  Baltimore  be  laid  in  ashes.  Of 
course  this  was  mere  idle  vaporing,  but  as  consider- 
able bodies  of  troops  were  known  to  be  on  the  way, 
and  as  another  attempt  to  pass  would  surely  have 
resulted  in  a  more  violent  outbreak,  since  the  citi- 
zens, almost  to  a  man,  were  arming,  the  Governor 


204  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

and  Mayor  gave  their  sanction  to  the  destruction  of 
the  bridges  to  the  north  and  east  of  the  city,  thus 
checking  the  advance  of  forces  until  the  authorities 
at  Washington  could  be  appealed  to.  A  deputation 
of  leading  citizens  called  upon  the  President  and 
explained  the  situation,  and  orders  were  issued  that 
the  troops  for  Washington  should  avoid  Baltimore 
and  go  by  water  to  Annapolis.  Federal  forces,  soon 
after  this,  occupied  the  city  and  constructed  fortifi- 
cations at  commanding  points. 

In  view  of  the  crisis  a  special  session  of  the  legis- 
lature was  called  to  meet  in  Frederick,  Annapolis 
being  under  military  occupation.  At  the  election  in 
Baltimore  politics,  in  the  ordinary  sense,  were  cast 
aside,  and  the  wisest  and  most  conservative  citizens 
elected  with  unanimity.  A  rumor  having  found  cre- 
dence that  this  legislature  intended  to  pass  an  ordi- 
nance of  secession,  they  hastened  to  declare  that 
they  had  no  such  intention,  nor  did  they  possess  the 
power  to  pass  such  an  ordinance.  But  they  passed 
vigorous  resolutions  against  the  conduct  of  the  war 
and  the  treatment  of  the  state  as  if  it  were  a  con- 
quered province. 

It  would  seem  that  the  Federal  authorities  cher- 
ished some  peculiar  malevolence  against  Maryland, 
although  she  had  not  seceded  nor  offered  any  resist- 
ance. Baltimore  was  put  under  the  control  of  a 
Provost- Marshal,  and  all  the  machinery  of  govern- 
ment superseded  by  military  force.  Arbitrary  ar- 
rests occurred  every  day,  and  citizens  were  dragged 
from  their  homes  and  sent  to  Northern  prisons,  not 
only  without  trial,  but  without  ever  being  informed 
of  the  charges  against  them.  Spies  and  informers 
were  everywhere  watching  to  pick  up  something  that 
could  be  carried  to  the  Provost-Marshal.  Mayor 
Brown  and  Marshal  Kane,  who  had  saved  the  lives 
of  the  soldiers  on  the  19th  of  April,  were  sent  to  Fort 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  205 

Warren.  The  legislature  which  had  declared  against 
secession  was  surrounded  by  troops,  and  several  of 
its  members  arrested  and  sent  to  a  military  prison. 
A  citizen  was  seized  at  his  house  by  a  party  of  sol- 
diers and  imprisoned  in  Fort  McHenry.  His  friends 
applied  to  Chief  Justice  Taney  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
which  was  granted,  but  the  commanding  officer  re- 
fused to  obey  it,  saying  that  he  had  been  ' '  authorized 
by  the  President ' '  to  suspend  the  writ.  Judge  Taney 
then  issued  a  very  able  opinion  showing  that  the 
President  had  no  such  power;  but,  of  course,  the 
constitution  was  now  regarded  as  a  dead  letter  by 
those  who  had  solemnly  sworn  to  maintain  it. 

All  these  things  aroused  hot  indignation  at  the 
time;  now  they  are  rather  matter  for  sober  reflec- 
tion. It  is  better  to  see  ugly  truths  than  to  be  blind, 
and  the  events  of  this  time  taught  a  lesson  which 
should  never  be  forgotten,  and  scattered  illusions 
which  can  never  return. 

Exasperated  by  such  deeds,  thousands  of  Mary- 
landers  crossed  the  Potomac  and  joined  the  Confed- 
erate army.  This  was  easy  at  first,  but  later  it  was 
extremely  difficult,  and  many  who  would  have  gone 
were  either  deterred  from  starting  or  abandoned  the 
attempt.  But  even  to  the  last,  secret  communica- 
tions were  kept  open  and  letters  and  messages 
forwarded. 

The  number  of  Marylanders  in  the  Confederate 
army  is  not  exactly  known,  as  they  were  under  vari- 
ous commands,  but  some  estimate  them  at  about 
20,000  men  all  told.  A  large  number  also  joined  the 
Federal  forces,  either  voluntarily  or  forced  by  the 
conscription ;  and  so  far  as  courage  and  conduct  are 
concerned,  the  state  has  no  cause  to  be  ashamed  of 
any,  whether  they  wore  the  blue  or  the  gray. 

The  only  battles  of  any  moment  fought  on  the  soil 


206  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

of  Maryland  were  those  of  South  Mountain  and  An- 
tietam,  when  General  Lee  entered  Pennsylvania  in 
1862. 

The  former  occurred  on  September  14  at  two 
passes  in  the  Blue  Eidge,  about  eight  miles  northeast 
of  Harper's  Ferry,  which  was  strongly  fortified  and 
held  by  about  12,000  Northern  troops.  This  it  was 
Lee's  plan  to  capture,  and  Jackson  was  hurrying  to 
attack  it.  The  Federal  general,  McClellan,  was  has- 
tening to  its  relief,  and  the  battle  was  fought  to  hold 
him  in  check.  The  Confederates,  though  greatly  out- 
numbered, held  McClellan  until  nightfall,  and  Har- 
per's Ferry  surrendered  the  next  day. 

The  battle  of  Antietam  was  fought  on  the  16th  and 
17th  of  the  same  month,  and  takes  its  name  from  a 
small  stream  which  divided  the  armies  of  McClellan, 
with  about  90,000  men,  and  Lee,  with  about  40,000. 
The  engagement  lasted  two  days  and  was  one  of  the 
fiercest  of  the  war.  At  the  end  Lee  withdrew  in 
good  order  to  the  south  of  the  Potomac,  and  McClel- 
lan's  losses  had  been  so  heavy  that  he  was  unable  to 
follow. 

Political  Conditions  During  the  War. 

We  return  now  to  the  political  conditions. 

A  pretense  of  free  institutions  had  been  left  to  the 
state,  and  elections  were  held  under  due  precautions 
to  secure  the  choice  of  candidates  acceptable  to  the 
party  in  power.  Citizens  of  doubtful  "loyalty"  had 
their  votes  rejected,  or  were  even  arrested,  and  sol- 
diers were  stationed  at  the  polls  to  intimidate  voters, 
many  of  whom,  knowing  the  uselessness  of  the  at- 
tempt, remained  at  home.  To  make  assurance  surer, 
a  test-oath,  a  device  unheard  of  in  the  state  and 
adopted  from  the  old  iniquitous  British  laws,  was 
offered  to  voters. 

The  legislature  of  1864,  elected  by  such  means, 
devised  a  plan  to  fix  their  party  immovably  in  power 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868.  207 

by  framing  a  new  constitution.  They  did  not,  how- 
ever, write  one  and  declare  it  adopted,  but  somewhat 
pedantically  went  through  the  form  of  submitting  to 
the  people  the  question  of  calling  a  constitutional 
convention.  The  voter,  unless  of  known  "loyalty," 
was  required  to  answer  a  string  of  questions  so 
framed  as  to  catch  any  but  a  thorough-going  parti- 
san. It  was  not  sympathy  with  the  Southern  cause 
that  they  feared — Southern  sympathizers  never 
thought  of  voting — what  they  feared  was  the  con- 
servative men  of  their  own  party,  of  whom  there 
were  many,  who,  while  entirely  faithful  to  the  cause 
of  the  North,  disapproved  these  outrageous  methods. 
To  catch  these  the  judges  were  empowered  to  refuse 
the  ballot  of  any  voter  whom  they  thought  suspicious. 

Constitution  of  1864. 

The  convention  met  at  Annapolis  on  April  27, 1864. 
In  the  constitution  they  drew  up,  beside  tests  which 
disfranchised  all  but  these  partisans,  there  were  two 
remarkable  articles,  the  fifth  and  twenty-fourth,  one 
intelligible  and  one  unintelligible.  The  fifth  article 
declared  that  every  citizen  owed  "paramount  alle- 
giance to  the  Constitution  and  Government  of  the 
United  States.'*  Here  was  a  phrase  to  stagger  the 
strongest  understanding.  "Paramount"  belongs  to 
a  sovereign,  "allegiance"  to  a  subject.  How  could 
there  be  two  allegiances,  one  paramount  to  the 
other?  Allegiance  is  due  to  a  person,  natural  or 
moral.  Now  what  was  the  "government"  that 
claimed  allegiance?  Surely  not  the  administration, 
a  body  of  public  servants  elected  by  the  people  of 
the  states.  The  creator  could  not  owe  allegiance  to 
its  own  creature.  Then  where  was  to  be  found  the 
liege  lord  and  paramount  sovereign  of  the  United 
States?  Who  had  ascended  the  vacant  throne  of 
George  III.  ?  Of  course  the  framers  of  this  precious 


208  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

phrase  had  no  idea  what  they  meant  by  it,  beyond  a 
muddled  notion  that  it  would  rivet  still  firmer  the 
fetters  they  were  forging  for  their  fellow-citizens. 

But  the  twenty-fourth  article  was  a  very  chryso- 
lite for  clearness.  It  provided  that  "hereafter  in 
this  state  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude,  except  for  crime  *  *  *  and  all  per- 
sons held  to  service  or  labor  as  slaves  are  hereby 
declared  free." 

The  value  of  the  slaves  in  Maryland  at  this  time 
was  estimated  at  $35,000,000.  Many  of  these  be- 
longed to  adherents  of  the  party  in  power,  who  were 
thus  called  on  to  suffer  for  their  faith.  But,  on 
broader  grounds,  what  would  be  the  result  of  turning 
loose  eighty-seven  thousand  negroes  to  shift  for 
themselves  was  a  question  of  the  most  serious  kind. 
The  framers  of  this  constitution  knew  that  it  would 
have  to  be  forced  through,  so  they  provided  a  new 
set  of  qualifications  for  those  who  were  to  vote  on  it, 
thus  making  it  operative  before  it  had  been  adopted. 
Yet,  despite  all  their  contrivances  for  suppressing 
the  will  of  the  people,  there  was  a  majority  of  two 
thousand  in  the  state  against  it.  Then  they  tried 
their  last  resort:  they  took  the  soldiers*  vote  outside 
the  state,  and  thus  pulled  it  through  by  a  very  small 
majority.  Under  this  constitution,  tainted  at  every 
step  of  its  generation  and  adoption  by  fraud,  perjury 
and  violence,  the  people  of  Maryland  remained  for 
three  years. 

Maryland  at  the  Close  of  the  War. 

The  cessation  of  the  war  found  Maryland  still  in 
the  state  of  a  conquered  province.  Of  95,000  voters 
about  60,000  were  disfranchised,  and  of  the  re- 
mainder about  15,000  were  opposed  to  the  radical 
faction,  so  that  the  state  was  ruled  by  little  more 
than  one-fifth  of  its  voters.  But  the  exigencies  of 


MARYLAND  FROM  1776  TO  1868  200 

war  now  no  longer  existing  to  confuse  ideas  of  jus- 
tice and  right,  a  "conservative"  wing  arose  in  the 
Republican  party  who  refused  to  indorse  the  extreme 
measures  of  the  radicals.  The  latter,  seeing  that 
power  was  slipping  from  them,  made  frantic  efforts 
to  retain  it,  even  to  the  extent  of  imploring  the  Fed- 
eral authorities  to  restore  military  law,  but  their 
pathetic  appeals  were  unheeded.  They  had,  per- 
haps, somewhat  discredited  themselves  with  the  au- 
thorities at  Washington  by  declaring  against  negro 
suffrage,  though  they  now  withdrew  their  objections. 

The  Conservative  Union  men  very  faithfully  col- 
laborated with  the  Democrats  in  restoring  the  reign 
of  justice  and  impartial  law.  The  officers  of  regis- 
tration, seeing  that  the  tide  was  turning,  no  longer 
attempted  to  apply  the  act  in  its  severity,  but  lis- 
tened only  to  specific  charges  supported  by  adequate 
proof.  A  legislature  was  now  elected  which  fairly 
represented  the  people,  and  one  of  its  first  actions 
was  to  pass  an  act  authorizing  an  election  to  decide 
on  the  calling  of  a  constitutional  convention.  The 
election  was  held  in  April,  1867,  and  delegates  to  the 
convention  were  elected  by  a  large  majority. 

In  May,  1867,  the  convention  assembled  at  An- 
napolis, and  drew  up  a  Declaration  of  Rights  and  a 
Constitution  which  were  submitted  to  the  people  and 
adopted  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  The  Declara- 
tion of  Rights  declared  "That  the  provisions  of  the 
Constitutions  of  the  United  States  and  of  this  state 
apply  as  well  in  time  of  war  as  of  peace;  and  any 
departure  from  or  violation  thereof  under  the  plea 
of  necessity  or  any  other  plea  is  subversive  of  good 
government  and  tends  to  anarchy  and  despotism." 

Maryland  had  never  ratified  the  Fourteenth 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
but  as  that  had  already  become  the  law  of  the  land, 
the  word  "white"  was  omitted  from  the  qualifica- 

T»l.  1—14. 


210  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

tions  for  suffrage.  Persons  elected  to  office  were  re- 
quired to  swear  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  and  "bear  true  allegiance  to  the  State 
of  Maryland. ' '  The  sweeping  character  of  the  revo- 
lution is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  the  legislature  of 
1868,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  state, 
there  was  but  a  single  party,  every  member  of  both 
houses  being  a  Democrat.  Thus  Maryland,  after  six 
years  of  bondage,  became  once  more  a  free  state. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — American  State  Papers  (Washington,  1832-61);  Ar- 
chives of  Maryland  (Vols.  XL,  XII  ,  XVI  ,  XXI.)  (Baltimore,  1882); 
Brown,  George  W.:  Baltimore  and  the  19  April,  1863  (Baltimore,  1887); 
Elliott,  J. :  Debates  on  the  Adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution  (Phila- 
delphia, 1861);  Hening,  W .:  Statutes  of  Virginia  (Richmond,  1808-20); 
Ingersoll,  C.  J.:  History  of  the  War  of  1812  (Philadelphia,  1852);  Mary- 
land Gazette  and  other  contemporary  journals;  Niles'  Register  (1816-49); 
Proceedings  and  Acts  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland  (Baltimore, 
1816-49);  Scharf,  J.  T.:  History  of  Maryland  (Baltimore,  1879). 

WILLIAM  HAND  BROWNE, 

Professor  of  English  Literature,  Johns  Hopkins  University; 
author  of  Maryland,  The  History  of  a  Palatinate,  etc., 
editor  of  the  Archives  of  Maryland  and  the  Maryland 
Historical  Magazine. 


CHAPTER  HI. 
HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909. 

Political  Condition  at  Close  of  War. 

The  state  of  Maryland  is  essentially  conservative, 
although  the  conservatism  is  not  of  that  hide-bound 
type  which  resists  all  improvement.  The  large 
number  of  first  things  which  are  attributed  to  the 
state  show  the  progressiveness  which  characterizes 
the  people,  yet  this  progressiveness  carries  with  it 
no  feverish  search  for  novelties;  a  careful  testing, 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  211 

either  by  the  Marylanders  or  by  other  peoples,  is 
demanded  before  new  measures  are  adopted.  Thus 
it  was  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  state  that  the 
worst  taunt  which  could  be  flung  at  a  political  party 
was  the  term  radical,  and  that  the  Democratic  party 
dominated  Maryland  for  many  years,  while  it  placed 
at  the  head  of  its  tickets  its  name  with  the  adjective, 
conservative,  but  lost  the  state  on  national  issues  to 
the  Republican  party,  when  it  had  lost  the  right  to 
the  use  of  this  adjective. 

In  1865  the  state  of  Maryland  found  itself  emerg- 
ing from  the  great  war  of  the  past  four  years  which 
was  just  closing.  During  that  combat  she  had  taken 
the  side  of  the  Union,  though  her  sons  had  fought 
bravely  in  the  armies  on  both  sides  of  the  struggle. 
She  had  suffered  comparatively  little  devastation 
from  the  campaigns  of  the  war,  although  the  Con- 
federate armies  had  thrice  crossed  her  frontiers  on 
important  movements  and  two  noteworthy  battles 
had  been  fought  within  her  borders.  In  1864  a  con- 
stitutional convention  had  prepared  fundamental 
laws  for  the  state,  which  Augustus  "VV.  Bradford, 
the  governor,  had  just  declared  to  have  been  adopted 
by  popular  vote.  This  constitution  was  redolent  of 
loyalty  to  the  Union,  prescribed  severe  test  oaths  as 
to  loyalty  to  be  taken  by  individuals  before  they 
could  exercise  political  rights,  gave  Baltimore  in- 
creased representation  in  the  legislature,  abolished 
slavery  and  provided  for  the  establishment  of  a 
state  system  of  public  schools. 

The  election  of  November,  1864,  had  resulted  in 
the  choice  of  Thomas  Swann  as  governor  and  of 
Dr.  C.  C.  Cox  as  lieutenant-governor,  both  of  Balti- 
more City.  Both  men  were  candidates  on  the  Union 
ticket  and  were  opposed  by  Democrats,  who  sup- 
ported the  national  platform  on  which  McClellan 
sought  the  presidency.  In  national  politics  the  state 


212  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

was  represented  in  the  Senate  by  Beverdy  Johnson, 
an  astute  and  genial  lawyer,  who  was  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Federal  bar,  and  by  Thomas  Holliday 
Hicks,  who  had  been  governor  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
war.  At  Governor  Hicks 's  death  in  1865,  his  place 
was  filled  by  the  election  of  J.  A.  J.  Creswell,  of 
Cecil  county,  who  was  later  appointed  postmaster- 
general  by  President  Grant,  and  who  served  as  one 
of  the  United  States  counsel  in  the  Alabama  claims 
before  the  Geneva  tribunal.  Johnson,  the  other 
senator,  was  eminently  serviceable  to  the  country  as 
a  conservative,  endeavoring  to  harmonize  the  di- 
verse interests  during  the  early  reconstruction  pe- 
riod, and  was  remarkably  influential,  owing  to  his 
knowledge  of  constitutional  law  and  his  personal 
popularity  with  the  members  regardless  of  their 
party  affiliation.  He  retired  from  the  Senate  in 
1868  to  become  Minister  to  Great  Britain.  He  was 
cordially  received  there,  and  after  a  year's  service 
returned  to  the  practice  of  law  in  Baltimore,  closing 
a  long  life  of  public  service  with  a  sudden  death  in 
1876.  From  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  elo- 
quent and  able  Henry  Winter  Davis  was  just  about 
to  retire  and  to  finish  a  brilliant  career  by  an  un- 
timely death  in  December,  1865.  Congress  paid 
him  the  unprecedented  tribute  of  having  him  pub- 
licly eulogized,  though  he  was  not  a  member  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  Among  the  representatives 
elected  from  the  state  to  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress 
the  most  noteworthy  were:  Francis  Thomas,  an  er- 
ratic but  forceful  man,  a  former  governor  of  the 
state,  who  represented  the  Western  Maryland  dis- 
trict and  the  extreme  Union  men,  and  the  gallant 
soldier,  Gen.  Charles  E.  Phelps,  just  returning  from 
command  of  a  Maryland  regiment  in  the  Union 
army.  After  a  brief  career  in  Congress  General 
Phelps  followed  President  Johnson  into  the  Demo- 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  213 

cratic  party,  and  returning  to  the  practice  of  law 
won  high  reputation  as  a  judge  of  the  Baltimore 
courts  for  nearly  thirty  years,  while  the  literary 
labors  of  his  leisure  hours  made  him  widely  known 
as  a  Shakespearean  scholar.  Montgomery  Blair, 
who  had  served  in  Lincoln's  cabinet,  was  now  re- 
siding in  the  state  and  threw  himself  into  the  con- 
servative movement. 

There  had  been  no  Republican  party  in  Maryland 
during  the  war,  but  the  dominant  party  had  been  the 
Union  one,  composed  of  Old  Line  Whigs,  Know- 
Nothings  and  Democrats,  banded  together  because 
of  the  predominance  of  one  issue — the  preservation 
of  the  Union.  They  had  stayed  together  until  the 
close  of  the  war,  but  now  a  wide  cleavage  came 
among  them,  and  in  the  days  of  the  reconstruction 
of  the  Southern  states  those  Union  men,  who  were 
not  willing  to  follow  the  course  of  the  majority  in 
Congress,  aligned  themselves  with  the  Democratic 
party  in  the  state,  while  the  remnant  of  the  Union 
party  reorganized  itself  as  the  Republican  party. 
The  division  may  be  seen  clearly  in  the  course  of  the 
two  men  chosen  to  executive  office  in  1864,  for  Gov- 
ernor Swann  became  a  Democrat,  while  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Cox  became  a  Republican.  The  result  of 
the  readjustment  of  voters  was  that  the  vast  major- 
ity of  citizens  became  Democrats  for  the  time,  and 
the  ranks  of  the  Republicans,  though  much  increased 
by  the  negro  voters,  who  were  added  to  the  electorate 
by  the  Fifteenth  amendment  to  the  Federal  consti- 
tution in  1870,  were  so  much  in  the  minority  that, 
from  1866  to  1895,  Maryland  suffered  the  disad- 
vantages of  being  a  one-party  state. 

In  1865,  while  the  unconditional  Union  men  con- 
trolled the  state,  Maryland  had  its  first  law  for  the 
registration  of  voters.  Disloyal  persons  were  rig- 
idly to  be  excluded  from  the  lists,  and  the  registrars 


214  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

were  given  power  to  refuse  to  permit  suspected  per- 
sons to  register,  even  though  they  took  the  oath  of 
allegiance.  The  courts  upheld  the  constitutionality 
of  the  act,  but  it  produced  a  widespread  dissatis- 
faction and  only  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
voters  registered.  Governor  Swann  at  first  sup- 
ported the  law,  but  just  before  the  November  elec- 
tion of  1866  he  changed  his  position,  removed  the 
police  commissioners  of  Baltimore  City,  who  had 
been  extremely  zealous  in  rigorously  enforcing  the 
law,  and  appointed  others  more  conservative.  These 
latter  were  thrown  into  jail  on  a  warrant,  but  were 
released  on  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shortly  after  the 
election.  In  spite  of  their  arrest  and  the  limited 
electorate,  Baltimore  City  cast  a  majority  for  the 
Democratic  ticket,  and  the  majority  for  that  party's 
legislative  nominees  throughout  the  state  was  very 
considerable.  This  legislature,  convening  in  Janu- 
ary, 1867,  repealed  the  registration  law,  and  enacted 
one  requiring  merely  an  oath  of  future  loyalty,  while 
it  also  provided  for  a  vote  in  April  on  the  question 
of  holding  a  new  constitutional  convention.  During 
the  session  Governor  Swann  was  elected  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  a  law  requiring  one  senator 
to  come  from  the  Eastern  Shore  being  repealed  for 
that  purpose.  Fearing,  however,  that  Dr.  Cox,  as 
governor,  would  follow  a  different  policy,  Governor 
Swann  changed  his  mind  at  the  last  minute  and  de- 
clined the  honor.  The  legislature  thereupon  elected 
as  senator  Philip  Francis  Thomas,  an  Eastern 
Shoreman,  who  had  been  in  Buchanan's  cabinet  in 
1860.  In  spite  of  Beverdy  Johnson's  efforts,  the 
Senate,  in  February,  1868,  refused  to  receive 
Thomas  on  the  ground  of  a  doubt  as  to  his  past 
loyalty,  and  the  legislature  then  elected  George 
Vickers,  of  Kent  county,  as  senator.  Governor 
Swann  sat  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  as  a 


REVERDY  JOHNSON. 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  215 

Democrat  from  1869  to  1879.  When  Johnson  re- 
tired from  the  Senate  in  1868,  the  governor  ap- 
pointed, at  his  request,  William  Pinkney  Whyte  to 
succeed  him.  Whyte  was  a  man  of  wonderful  physi- 
cal force  and  energy,  who  entered  politics  about 
1850  and  closed  his  long  and  distinguished  career  in 
1908,  while  again  a  member  of  the  national  Senate. 

Constitution  of  1867. 

A  large  majority  of  the  electorate  favored  the  con- 
stitutional convention,  and  it  assembled  at  Annapo- 
lis on  May  8,  1867.  Its  sessions  lasted  until  August 

17,  and  its  acts  were  ratified  by  a  two-thirds  major- 
ity of  the  voters  at  the  election  held  on  September 

18.  The  constitution  went  into  effect  on  October  15, 
and  is  still  in  force,  but  slightly  amended.    It  pro- 
vides that  the  question  of  a  constitutional  conven- 
tion be  submitted  to  the  people  every  twenty  years; 
but,  both  in  1887   and  in  1907,   the  people  voted 
against  holding  such  a  convention,  fearing  the  un- 
certain result  of  its  deliberations. 

In  some  ways  the  constitution  of  1867  was  a  reac- 
tionary one  from  that  of  1864.  It  abolished  the 
office  of  lieutenant-governor  and  changed  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  state,  so  as  to  omit  all  mention 
of  the  United  States;  but  it  preserved  many  of  the 
important  features  of  the  previous  constitution.  A 
governor  to  serve  for  four  years  was  provided  and  a 
legislature  of  two  houses :  the  upper  house  or  Senate, 
a  continuous  body  elected  for  four  years,  to  consist 
of  one  member  from  each  county,  or  legislative  dis- 
trict of  Baltimore  City  (of  which  there  were  then 
three,  now  increased  to  four),  and  a  lower  house  or 
House  of  Delegates,  elected  for  two  years,  composed 
of  from  two  to  six  members  from  each  county,  ac- 
cording to  population,  as  ascertained  by  state  or 
Federal  census.  Each  legislative  district  in  the  city 


216  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

is  represented  by  the  same  number  of  delegates  as 
the  largest  county.  Although  Baltimore  City  has 
nearly  half  the  population  and  pays  considerably 
over  half  the  taxes  of  the  state,  it  is  seen  that  her 
representation  is  not  proportionate  to  her  import- 
ance, and  a  seeming  jealousy  between  the  city  and 
the  counties  makes  it  doubly  difficult,  at  times,  for 
the  former  to  obtain  her  desires.  The  legislature 
holds  biennial  sessions  limited  to  ninety  days.  The 
state  is  divided  for  judicial  purposes  into  eight  cir- 
cuits, each  of  which  elects  one  member  of  the  Court 
of  Appeals.  Baltimore  City  constitutes  one  circuit, 
with  ten  judges,  in  addition  to  the  member  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  who  does  not  sit  in  the  courts  be- 
low. Each  of  the  other  seven  circuits  contains  from 
two  to  four  counties  and  elects  two  judges,  who  are 
associated  in  holding  court  with  the  member  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  from  the  circuit,  who  sits  also  as 
chief  judge  of  the  circuit  courts.  The  high  reputa- 
tion of  the  Maryland  judiciary  has  been  still  fur- 
ther enhanced  by  the  work  of  such  chief  judges  of 
the  state  Court  of  Appeals  as  E.  J.  Bowie,  E.  H. 
Alvey,  J.  M.  Eobinson,  James  McSherry  and  A. 
Hunter  Boyd. 

By  the  constitution,  Wicomico  county  was  estab- 
lished on  the  Eastern  Shore  with  Salisbury  as  its 
county  seat.  In  1872  the  extreme  western  portion 
of  the  state  was  erected  into  Garrett  county,  with 
Oakland  as  its  county  seat,  and  the  number  of 
twenty-three  counties  thus  attained  has  not  since 
been  changed. 

The  Eepublican  party  in  Maryland  struggled  to 
check  the  march  of  events,  but  the  Maryland  courts 
decided  against  their  contentions  and  Congress  re- 
fused to  listen  to  their  complaints.  The  first  elec- 
tion under  the  new  constitution  was  held  in  Balti- 
more on  Oct.  23,  1867,  and  resulted  in  the  election  of 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  217 

the  Democratic  candidate  by  a  vote  of  18,420  to 
4,896.  Two  weeks  later  the  state  chose  as  governor 
Oden  Bowie,  the  Democratic  nominee,  by  a  vote  of 
63,694  to  22,050,  and  associated  with  him  an  unani- 
mously Democratic  legislature. 

Noteworthy  Events,  1868-1008. 

In  July,  1868,  a  noteworthy  flood  occurred  on  the 
Patapsco  Eiver  and  in  Baltimore.  In  autumn  of 
that  year  the  electoral  vote  of  the  state  for  president 
was  cast  for  Seymour,  the  Democratic  candidate, 
and  in  1869  another  unanimously  Democratic  legis- 
lature was  chosen.  In  1870  the  Republicans  carried 
several  counties  by  small  majorities  in  the  congres- 
sional election,  but  elected  no  congressmen.  A  year 
later,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Lewis  H. 
Steiner,  they  carried  Frederick  county,  and  under 
his  fearless  and  persistent  leadership  for  twelve 
years  in  the  legislature  the  party  became  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  state.  At  the  election  of  1871, 
William  Pinkney  Whyte  was  elected  governor  by  a 
majority  of  15,000,  and  the  Democratic  party  con- 
tinued under  his  leadership  for  several  years.  In 
1874  he  was  chosen  United  States  senator  and,  ac- 
cepting the  position,  was  succeeded  by  James  Black 
Groome,  of  Cecil  county,  for  the  remainder  of  the 
gubernatorial  term.  The  legislature  of  1872  had,  as 
Speaker  of  its  House  of  Delegates,  Arthur  P.  Gor- 
man, of  Howard  county,  a  man  of  remarkable  astute- 
ness and  shrewdness.  During  the  years  which  fol- 
lowed, as  president  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio 
Canal,  which  was  controlled  by  the  state  in  virtue 
of  large  investments  therein,  he  built  up  a  remark- 
able following  in  the  Democratic  party,  and  in  1880 
he  was  chosen  by  the  legislature  to  succeed  Governor 
Whyte  in  the  United  States  Senate.  From  that  time 
to  his  death  in  1906,  the  control  of  the  Democratic 


218  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

organization  in  Maryland  was  in  the  hands  of  Sen- 
ator Gorman  and  his  friends,  and,  except  for  four 
years  from  1899  to  1903,  he  was  continuously  in  the 
Senate. 

In  July,  1872,  the  National  Democratic  Convention 
met  in  Baltimore  and  nominated  Horace  Greeley 
for  the  presidency.  In  November  the  state  chose 
electors  favorable  to  him  by  a  majority  of  less  than 
a  thousand,  so  distasteful  was  his  nomination  to  the 
conservative  wing  of  the  Democrats,  while  two  of 
the  Eepublican  candidates  for  Congress  were 
elected. 

In  July,  1873,  a  destructive  fire  raged  in  Balti- 
more. In  the  same  year  the  Baltimore  &  Potomac 
Eailroad  was  opened  and  gave  a  second  route  from 
the  North  to  Washington,  and  the  city  was  traversed 
by  a  tunnel  which  permitted  trains  to  run  through 
it  from  east  to  west.  In  the  endeavor  to  gain  south- 
ern trade,  Baltimore  made  an  investment  of  a  mil- 
lion dollars  in  the  Valley  Eailroad  of  Virginia,  from 
which  she  has  had  but  little  return.  Some  ten  years 
later  the  Pennsylvania  Eailroad  bought  the  line 
from  Baltimore  to  Philadelphia,  and  the  Baltimore 
&  Ohio  followed  this  purchase  by  building  a  parallel 
line  to  obtain  an  outlet  for  its  trade. 

The  one-party  state  is  apt  to  be  one  into  which 
abuses  creep,  and  such  was  claimed  to  be  the  con- 
dition in  Maryland.  Objecting  to  the  control  of 
Governor  Whyte  and  his  associates,  a  number  of 
Eeform  Democrats  broke  away  from  their  party  in 
1875,  refused  to  accept  the  nomination  of  John  Lee 
Carroll,  of  Howard  county,  for  governor,  and,  fusing 
with  the  Eepublicans,  nominated  a  reform  ticket, 
headed  by  J.  Morrison  Harris  and  containing  the 
name  of  S.  Teackle  Wallis,  a  leader  of  the  Baltimore 
bar,  as  candidate  for  attorney-general.  A  reform 
ticket  was  also  nominated  for  the  mayoralty  election 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  219 

in  Baltimore  and  was  defeated  by  a  small  majority. 
In  the  gubernatorial  election  Harris  carried  the 
counties,  but  a  large  majority  returned  for  the 
Democratic  ticket  in  Baltimore  City  was  sufficient 
to  elect  Carroll.  Great  frauds  were  proved,  but  the 
face  of  the  returns  was  accepted  as  the  basis  of 
choice  and  Carroll  was  inaugurated.  Now  began  an 
age-long  conflict,  which  has  no  parallel  in  American 
history.  Organizing  an  association,  under  the  name 
of  the  Baltimore  Reform  League,  Wallis  and  his 
associates  waged  a  never-ending  struggle  with  the 
state  and  City  Democratic  organizations.  Gradu- 
ally, a  large  number  of  independent  voters  came  to 
hold  the  balance  of  power  in  Baltimore.  No  inde- 
pendent ticket  was  nominated  and  fusion  occurred 
very  seldom,  but,  from  time  to  time,  Eepublican 
candidates  received  the  support  of  the  Reform 
League,  and  that  support,  frequently,  has  led  to  an 
election.  This,  in  turn,  led  the  Democratic  party  to 
nominate  men  of  higher  character,  and  has  much 
improved  political  conditions. 

In  1876  the  state  swung  far  over  into  the  Demo- 
cratic column,  electing  six  Democratic  congressmen 
and  casting  a  majority  of  nearly  20,000  for  the 
Tilden  electors.  The  Centennial  Exposition  in  that 
year  aroused  much  interest  in  the  state.  July,  1877, 
saw  the  most  terrible  strike  of  laboring  men  which 
Maryland  has  known.  A  reduction  in  the  wages  of 
the  employees  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad 
Company  led  to  rioting  and  such  disturbances  that 
the  National  Guard  were  called  out  and  the  assist- 
ance of  Federal  troops  was  asked. 

The  efforts  of  the  reform  element  led  to  the  nomi- 
nation by  the  Democratic  party  of  William  T.  Ham- 
ilton, of  Washington  county,  for  the  governorship 
in  1879,  and  he  was  elected  by  the  large  majority  of 
22,000.  During  his  administration  a  number  of  im- 


220  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

portant  measures  were  adopted  by  the  legislature, 
although  that  body  failed  to  follow  many  of  Gov- 
ernor Hamilton's  recommendations  looking  towards 
good  government.  In  1880  the  state's  electors  voted 
for  Hancock,  the  Democratic  nominee  for  president. 
In  1882  the  reform  element  had  its  first  victory  in 
Baltimore  City,  electing  "new  judges"  by  coalition 
with  the  Eepublicans  over  the  old  judges  renomi- 
nated  by  the  regular  Democrats. 

In  Baltimore  a  new  city  hall  had  been  erected  and 
dedicated  in  1875.  Some  ten  years  later  a  Federal 
building  was  constructed,  and  after  another  decade 
a  splendid  municipal  courthouse  was  placed  on  the 
square  still  further  to  the  west.  The  courthouse 
was  opened  in  1900,  and,  like  the  city  hall,  it  was 
built  within  the  original  appropriation.  A  new 
custom  house,  somewhat  to  the  south  of  the  city  hall, 
was  completed  in  1907,  and  thus  the  city  has  a  rather 
unusually  excellent  civic  centre.  In  October,  1880, 
the  Baltimoreans  celebrated,  with  elaborate  festivi- 
ties, the  sesqui-centennial  of  the  city's  foundation. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Governor  Hamilton's  admin- 
istration, he  was  succeeded  by  Robert  M.  McLane,  of 
Baltimore.  In  1884  Maryland's  persistence  in  vo- 
ting for  Democratic  candidates  for  the  presidency 
was  rewarded  by  the  election  of  Cleveland.  He  ap- 
pointed Governor  McLane  United  States  Minister 
to  France,  and  the  remainder  of  the  gubernatorial 
term  was  filled  by  Henry  Lloyd,  of  Dorchester 
county.  Maryland's  congressional  delegation  dur- 
ing this  decade  numbered  such  eloquent  and  able 
men  as  J.  V.  L.  Findlay,  Isidor  Bayner  and  Henry 
Stockbridge. 

In  1887  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad,  which  had 
been  thought  a  remarkably  prosperous  corporation, 
ceased  to  pay  dividends,  and  many  citizens  who 
were  stockholders  suffered  severe  losses.  In  1896 


MARYLAND  FKCBl  1865  TO  1909.  221 

the  road  went  into  the  hands  of  receivers :  John  K. 
Cowen  and  Oscar  G.  Murray.  Cowen  was  an  able 
lawyer  and  a  man  of  great  power,  and  by  the  dar- 
ing issue  of  receivers'  certificates  and  extensive  re- 
construction of  the  road  he  was  able,  after  little  more 
than  three  years,  to  return  it  to  its  stockholders  un- 
der the  original  charter.  He  became  the  first  presi- 
dent of  the  reorganized  road,  and  during  his  direc- 
tion of  its  affairs  a  tunnel  was  dug  under  the  city 
so  that  there  might  be  direct  connection  be- 
tween the  lines  on  the  east  and  west  sides  of  Balti- 
more. 

In  1885  the  first  electric  railway  in  the  United 
States  was  opened  in  Baltimore.  It  did  not  prove  a 
success,  however,  and  was  soon  abandoned.  A  cable 
road  was  opened  in  1889  and  a  trolley  line  in  1892, 
and  the  various  lines  were  thereafter  speedily  elec- 
trified, so  that  within  a  decade  all  street  car  trans- 
portation in  Baltimore  was  by  electricity. 

The  financial  interests  of  the  state  suffered  a 
shock  in  1890,  when  the  defalcation  of  the  state 
treasurer  became  known.  He  had  been  universally 
trusted  and  yet  had  managed  to  misappropriate 
considerably  over  $100,000  of  the  state 's  funds.  The 
loss  to  his  bondsmen  was  heavy  and  the  incident 
gave  an  especial  incentive  to  the  founding  of  bond- 
ing companies  in  Baltimore. 

The  "belt"  of  suburban  territory  to  the  north  and 
west  of  Baltimore  was  annexed  to  the  city  in  1888. 
The  spring  of  the  next  year  saw  disastrous  floods  in 
western  Maryland,  which  so  damaged  the  Chesa- 
peake &  Ohio  Canal  that  it  was  never  afterwards 
successfully  operated,  although  it  was  not  sold  to 
the  Western  Maryland  Railroad  until  over  fifteen 
years  later. 

The  Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  Elihu  E. 
Jackson,  of  Wicomico  county,  was  elected  in  1887, 


222  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

and  in  the  next  year  the  state's  electoral  vote  was 
again  cast  for  Cleveland. 

There  had  long  been  complaint  of  intimidation 
and  fraud  at  elections,  especially  in  Baltimore  City, 
and  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such  acts  an  Aus- 
tralian Ballot  Law  was  adopted  in  1890.  It  resulted 
in  much  bettered  conditions,  but  being  only  a  partial 
measure  needed  considerable  improvement. 

Frank  Brown,  of  Carroll  county,  was  elected  gov- 
ernor on  the  Democratic  ticket  in  1891,  and  in  1892 
the  electoral  vote  was  cast  for  Cleveland  for  the 
third  time.  Governor  Brown  was  obliged  to  call  out 
the  militia  on  account  of  a  strike  of  coal  miners  in 
Frostburg  in  1894.  The  congressional  elections,  in 
the  fall  of  that  year,  showed  for  the  first  time  a  pop- 
ular Republican  majority  in  the  state.  This  fact 
gave  the  party  new  courage,  and  in  1895  it  nomi- 
nated one  of  its  best  men,  Lloyd  Lowndes,  of  Alle- 
gany  county.  The  Reform  League  and  many 
Democrats,  such  as  Governor  Whyte,  who  had  be- 
come dissatisfied  with  conditions  in  their  party  and 
in  the  state,  supported  Lowndes,  and  especial  ef- 
forts were  exerted  to  prevent  fraud  or  intimidation 
at  the  polls  in  Baltimore.  The  election  resulted  in 
the  choice  of  Lowndes  as  governor  by  a  majority  of 
18,000.  The  legislature  was  Republican  on  joint 
ballot,  and  chose  George  L.  Wellington,  of  Allegany 
county,  as  United  States  senator,  disregarding  the 
Eastern  Shore  law  and  recognizing  Western  Mary- 
land, the  strongest  Republican  portion  of  the  state. 
The  most  important  measures  of  the  session  were 
the  passage  of  an  excellent  ballot  law  prepared  by 
the  Reform  League  (which  did  away  with  all  in- 
timidation and  riot  at  the  polls),  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  State  Geological  Survey,  whose  achieve- 
ments have  been  very  extensive  and  of  a  remark- 
ably high  character. 


MARYLAND  FROM  18G5  TO  1909.  223 

The  nomination  of  William  J.  Bryan  for  the  presi- 
dency by  the  Democratic  party  in  1896  was  not 
favorably  received  in  Maryland,  where  the  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  a  gold  standard  was  very  strong. 
The  Prohibitionists  nominated  Joshua  Levering,  of 
Baltimore  City,  for  president,  but  his  vote  was  small, 
and  the  Republican  ticket,  headed  by  McKinley,  car- 
ried the  state  by  32,000  plurality,  while  every  Re- 
publican nominee  for  Congress  was  elected.  Presi- 
dent McKinley  called  to  his  cabinet,  as  postmaster- 
general,  James  A.  Gary,  who  is  a  prominent  manu- 
facturer of  Baltimore  and  who  had  long  been  promi- 
nent in  state  politics.  In  1897  a  legislature  was 
chosen  with  Republican  majorities  in  both  houses, 
the  only  time  such  an  event  has  occurred,  and  at  the 
Session  of  1898,  Hon.  Louis  E.  McComas,  a  jurist  of 
experience,  was  chosen  United  States  senator,  while 
a  new  and  greatly  improved  city  charter  was 
adopted  for  Baltimore,  coordinating  the  various  de- 
partments and  vesting  large  powers  over  appropria- 
tions in  a  board  of  estimates. 

The  same  year  saw  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish- 
American  war.  The  patriotism  of  the  state  mani- 
fested itself  in  the  enlistment  of  two  regiments  of 
volunteer  soldiers  and  a  battalion  of  naval  militia; 
but  the  short  duration  of  the  struggle  prevented 
them  from  engaging  in  active  campaigning.  Two 
of  the  popular  heroes  of  the  war  in  the  regular 
forces,  however,  Admiral  W.  S.  Schley  and  Gen. 
H.  G.  Otis,  were  born  in  or  near  Frederick  City. 

The  new  charter  of  Baltimore  City  went  into  ef- 
fect in  1899  with  the  Democratic  party  in  power, 
and  the  same  party  won  the  gubernatorial  election 
in  the  autumn,  owing,  in  large  part,  to  party  dis- 
sensions, Governor  Lowndes  being  defeated  for  re- 
election, by  John  Walter  Smith,  of  Worcester  county. 
Four  years  after  Governor  Smith's  retirement  from 


224  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

the  governorship  he  was  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate. 

In  1900  the  state  cast  its  electoral  vote  for  McKin- 
ley  for  the  second  time  by  nearly  14,000  majority. 
In  1901  Governor  Smith  called  an  extra  session  of 
the  legislature  to  amend  the  ballot  law  and  to  pro- 
vide for  a  state  census,  since  certain  frauds,  which 
were  afterwards  corrected,  had  been  found  in  the 
Federal  census  of  1900.  The  election  law  adopted 
at  this  session  abolished  the  party  columns  and  em- 
blems from  the  ballot  and  marked  the  beginning  of 
a  continuous  policy  on  the  part  of  the  Democratic 
party  organization  for  the  suppression  of  the  negro 
vote.  The  election  of  1901  turned  upon  the  question 
of  approving,  or  condemning,  this  election  law  and 
certain  so-called  trick  ballots  in  some  of  the  counties, 
and  resulted  in  the  choice  of  a  Democratic  legisla- 
ture, but  in  the  election  of  a  Republican  Clerk  of 
the  Court  of  Appeals  and  a  Democratic  comptroller 
by  very  small  majorities.  In  recent  years  the  state 
has  shown  a  tendency  to  cast  its  vote  for  Republican 
candidates  on  national  issues  and  for  Democratic 
ones  on  state  issues;  thus,  in  1902,  the  Republicans 
carried  Maryland  on  the  Congressional  vote;  but 
in  1903  Edwin  Warfield,  of  Howard  county,  was  se- 
lected as  governor  by  a  majority  of  12,000  over 
Stevenson  A.  Williams,  of  Harford  county,  a  strong 
candidate  named  by  the  Republicans. 

The  period  since  Governor  Smith's  election  has 
been  one  of  remarkable  construction  of  public  build- 
ings at  Annapolis.  The  United  States  government 
has  erected  a  new  Federal  building  there  and  has  re- 
constructed the  Naval  Academy  at  the  cost  of  sev- 
eral millions  of  dollars.  A  building  for  the  Court  of 
Appeals  and  the  State  Library  was  erected  near  the 
State  House,  and  a  very  large  annex  was  added  to 
the  State  House  itself  in  Governor  Warfield 's  ad- 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  225 

ministration,  while  the  interior  of  that  fine  colonial 
structure  was  remodeled  so  to  restore  its  original 
appearance  as  far  as  possible. 

An  important  event  was  the  great  fire  of  Feb.  7, 
1904,  in  Baltimore,  which  burnt  over  about  160  acres 
of  ground  and  destroyed  nearly  $100,000,000  worth 
of  property.  Fortunately,  the  public  officials  acted 
with  promptness  and  decision,  and  so  effectively 
that  no  lives  were  lost  and  there  was  no  robbery. 
Fortunately  also,  the  legislature  was  in  session  and 
passed  a  number  of  remedial  measures,  establishing 
a  Burnt  District  Commission  to  deal  with  the  diffi- 
cult problems  arising  from  the  fire.  The  city  had 
recently  sold  its  controlling  interest  in  the  Western 
Maryland  Railroad  and  still  had  in  its  treasury  the 
sum  received  from  that  sale.  This  money  was  used 
for  widening  streets  and  for  other  improvements, 
and  the  spirit  of  progress  urged  the  city  on  to  the 
construction  of  an  adequate  sewerage  system,  the 
development  of  the  public  parks  and  the  building  of 
modern  municipal  wharves  to  take  the  place  of  those 
which  had  burned. 

In  the  autumn  of  1906  a  month's  canvass  of  the 
city  produced  subscriptions  sufficient  to  enable  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  to  erect  a  new 
building  at  a  cost  of  over  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars. 

The  legislature  of  1904  proposed  to  the  voters  a 
constitutional  amendment  relating  to  the  suffrage. 
This  amendment  is  usually  known  by  the  name  of 
John  P.  Poe,  Esq.,  a  leading  lawyer  who  framed  it, 
included  a  so-called  " grandfather's  clause,"  and 
gave  considerable  discretionary  power  to  the  officers 
of  registration.  It  was  opposed  by  Governor  War- 
field,  the  Democratic  attorney-general,  and  many 
other  prominent  members  of  that  party,  as  well  as 
by  the  united  body  of  Republicans,  and  was  defeated 

Vol.  1—15 


226  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

in  the  election  of  1905  by  a  majority  of  34,000,  al- 
though a  legislature  with  a  Democratic  majority 
was  then  elected.  The  legislature  of  1904  elected 
Isidor  Bayner  as  United  States  senator,  and  also 
passed  a  law  known  as  the  Shoemaker  Law,  de- 
signed to  promote  good  roads  by  lending  state  aid 
to  their  improvement.  This  movement  towards  im- 
proved roads  received  a  great  impetus  in  1908,  when 
the  legislature  voted  to  issue  bonds  to  the  amount 
of  $5,000,000  for  that  purpose.  At  the  presidential 
election  of  1904,  the  vote  of  the  state  was  very  close 
and,  by  small  pluralities,  seven  Democratic  electors 
and  one  Eepublican  elector  were  chosen.  Shortly 
after  President  Roosevelt's  inauguration  he  called 
to  his  cabinet,  as  secretary  of  the  navy-,  and  later  as 
attorney-general,  Charles  J.  Bonaparte,  of  Baltimore 
City,  who  had  long  been  prominent  in  reform  move- 
ments. 

The  most  important  measures  of  the  legislature 
of  1906  were  the  passage  of  the  so-called  Haman 
Law  for  oyster  culture  in  the  waters  of  the  state,  and 
the  sale  of  the  state's  holdings  in  the  stock  of  the 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad,  by  which  sale  the  state's 
debt  was  virtually  extinguished.  A  general  local 
option  law  was  introduced,  but  failed  of  passage. 

In  1907  the  Republicans  nominated  George  R. 
Gaither,  of  Baltimore  City,  for  governor,  and  he 
was  defeated  by  Austin  L.  Crothers,  the  Democratic 
candidate  of  Cecil  county,  by  about  7,000  majority. 

In  1908,  the  electoral  vote  of  Maryland  was  again 
divided,  two  Republicans  and  six  Democrats  being 

chosen. 

Industrial  Growth. 

Maryland  began  her  career  as  an  agricultural 
state  and  her  chief  city  gained  her  first  prominence 
as  a  commercial  emporium.  Agriculture  and  com- 
merce are  still  the  chief  occupations  of  the  citizens 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  227 

of  the  state,  but  mining  for  coal  in  the  Alleghany 
mountains,  quarrying  for  building  stone  throughout 
western  and  northern  Maryland,  and  manufacturing 
of  various  sorts  now  diversify  the  industry  of  the 
people.  Tobacco  is  still  raised  in  southern  Mary- 
land, grains  of  various  sorts  are  produced  success- 
fully, especially  in  Frederick,  Washington,  Carroll 
and  Queen  Anne's  counties.  The  neighborhood  of 
large  cities  has  greatly  increased  the  trucking  in- 
dustry in  the  light  soils  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay 
counties  and  dairy  farming  in  western  and  northern 
Maryland.  Sufficient  areas  of  woodland  still  stand 
so  as  to  make  lumbering  profitable,  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  fruit  trees  furnishes  an  important  occupa- 
tion. The  Bay  affords  supply  of  fish,  crabs,  clams 
and  oysters.  The  time  of  many  men  is  occupied  not 
only  by  the  growth,  but  also  by  the  canning  and 
preservation  of  fruit  and  oysters.  Baltimore  is  the 
chief  manufacturing  centre  of  the  state  and  has 
many  establishments  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  copper  and  iron,  in  the  weaving  of  cotton  duck, 
in  the  making  of  fertilizers  and  in  the  sewing  of 
ready-made  clothing,  while  the  ship-building  in- 
dustry at  Sparrow's  Point  on  the  Patapsco  is  of 
considerable  importance. 

As  the  Bay  afforded  means  of  transportation  to 
ocean-going  sailing  vessels  and  to  the  smaller  bug- 
eye or  canoe,  from  the  time  of  the  first  settlement, 
so  it  and  its  estuaries  have  now  provided  routes 
for  many  steamboat  lines  which  have  made  access 
easy  for  passengers  and  freight  from  various  parts 
of  Maryland,  Delaware  and  Virginia  to  Baltimore. 
Two  railway  lines  cross  the  Eastern  Shore,  connect- 
ing with  steamboat  lines  for  Baltimore,  and,  along 
the  centre  of  that  shore  runs  the  railroad  from  Cape 
Charles  to  Philadelphia,  a  line  which  is  fed  by 
branches  touching  all  the  important  towns,  and 


228  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

which  accentuates  the  age-long  struggle  for  trade 
between  the  emporium  on  the  Chesapeake  and  that 
on  the  Delaware.  Across  the  state,  from  east  to 
west,  runs  the  line  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Bail- 
road,  the  oldest  such  corporation  in  America,  con- 
necting the  state  with  the  south  and  west.  Paral- 
lel with  it,  from  Delaware  to  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, is  the  course  of  the  lines  of  its  former  great 
rival,  the  Pennsylvania  Eailroad.  The  same  road 
controls  the  Northern  Central  Eailroad,  which  gives 
access  from  Baltimore,  through  Harrisburg,  to  the 
West  and  to  the  Great  Lakes.  Trolley  lines  now 
connect  Baltimore,  Annapolis  and  Washington,  and 
a  short  railroad  runs  from  Baltimore  through  Har- 
ford  county  into  Pennsylvania,  while  Frederick  has 
connection  with  York,  and  Hagerstown  has  connec- 
tion with  the  Shenandoah  Valley  and  with  the  Cum- 
berland Valley.  The  most  important  other  road  is 
the  Western  Maryland.  This  railroad  connected 
Baltimore  and  Hagerstown  for  many  years,  and  re- 
cent extensions  have  led  it  through  Cumberland  into 
West  Virginia.  The  limestone  turnpikes  of  west- 
ern Maryland  have  long  been  famous,  and  the  recent 
good  roads  movement,  elsewhere  referred  to,  makes 
the  outlook  most  hopeful  for  improved  transporta- 
tion throughout  the  state. 

Progress  in  Education,  Etc. 

During  the  period,  which  is  now  under  dis- 
cussion, must  be  assigned  Maryland's  most  con- 
spicuous progress  in  education.  Joseph  M.  Cushing, 
of  Baltimore  City,  secured  the  insertion  of  a 
clause  in  the  constitution  of  1864,  providing  for  the 
establishment  of  a  state  system  of  education,  and  he 
also  secured  the  appointment  of  Kev.  Libertus  van 
Bokkelen  as  the  first  state  superintendent.  A  State 
Normal  School  was  opened  in  1866  and  county  super- 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  229 

intendents  speedily  were  at  work,  organizing  the 
work  of  instruction  throughout  Maryland.  Henry 
Barnard's  year's  service  at  St.  John's  College  as 
president,  before  he  was  appointed  the  first  national 
superintendent  of  education,  was  too  short  a  time 
for  him  to  leave  much  mark,  but  the  long  and  efficient 
career  of  the  genial  Irishman,  M.  A.  Newell,  as 
principal  of  the  State  Normal  School,  was  important 
for  the  state.  The  constitution  of  1867  continued 
the  state  system,  and,  after  a  generation  of  begin- 
nings, the  years  in  which  Gushing  was  president  of 
the  State  Board  of  Education  from  1896  to  1903 
were  characterized  by  decided  advance.  A  second 
normal  school  at  Frostburg,  a  normal  department  at 
Washington  College  in  Chestertown,  the  systemati- 
zation  and  strengthening  of  teachers'  institutes,  the 
rise  of  high  schools,  the  distribution  of  free  school 
books  to  pupils,  the  separation  of  the  superin- 
tendency  of  education  from  the  principalship  of  the 
Normal  School,  and  the  appointment  to  the  former 
office  of  the  tactful  man,  M.  Bates  Stephens — these 
are  some  of  the  educational  achievements  of  that 
period.  The  larger  part  of  the  direct  tax  of  the 
state  is  levied  for  schools,  and  is  supplemented  by 
large  contributions  from  counties  and  city.  The 
system  of  education  in  Baltimore  City  is  about  forty 
years  older  than  the  state  system,  is  independent  of 
state  control  and  has  been  greatly  improved,  in  the 
last  few  years,  under  an  able,  unpartisan  school 
board. 

In  1870  the  state  made  its  first  appropriation  for 
the  education  of  negroes,  and  in  1908  it  established 
a  colored  normal  school,  taking  over  as  its  nucleus 
an  institution  founded  by  Gushing  and  his  asso- 
ciates immediately  upon  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  and  long  in  receipt  of  a  subsidy  from  the 
state.  This  policy  of  subsidizing  private  educational 


230  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

and  beneficent  institutions  is  so  characteristic  of 
Maryland  that  it  is  worthy  of  mention.  The  build- 
ing of  the  Maryland  School  for  the  Blind  at  Balti- 
more was  dedicated  in  1868,  and  other  and  special 
features  of  the  state's  educational  system  have  been 
founded  since  1865 :  such  as  the  excellent  school  for 
the  deaf  at  Frederick  in  1867,  the  school  for  colored 
deaf  and  blind  at  Baltimore  in  1872,  and  the  work 
for  adult  blind  in  1908.  In  1902  the  Maryland  State 
Library  Commission  began  its  useful  work  of  aiding 
municipal  libraries  and  distributing  traveling  libra- 
ries. This  period  is  also  filled  with  new  educational 
enterprises  under  private  management.  The  Mc- 
Donough  School  for  the  training  of  poor  boys,  and 
Rock  Hill  College,  a  Roman  Catholic  institution  at 
Ellicott  City,  were  opened  in  1865.  In  1866  the  Pea- 
body  Institute,  the  gift  of  George  Peabody  to  Balti- 
more City,  where  its  founder  once  resided,  began 
its  important  career  as  a  great  reference  library,  a 
seat  of  public  lectures,  a  hall  of  art  and  a  conserva- 
tory of  music.  In  1867  the  Jesuits  opened  their 
theological  seminary  at  Woodstock  and  the  Redemp- 
torists  theirs  at  Ilchester,  while  the  Methodists  be- 
gan a  training  school  for  colored  men  in  Baltimore, 
which  later  developed  into  Morgan  College.  In  1868 
the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  opened  its  suc- 
cessful Western  Maryland  College  at  Westminster, 
beside  which  college  the  church  placed  its  theological 
seminary  in  1882. 

The  greatest  stimulus  to  education  came,  however, 
from  the  foundations  established  by  Johns  Hopkins, 
a  Baltimore  banker,  whose  estate  of  about  seven 
million  dollars,  after  his  death  in  December,  1873, 
was  equally  divided  between  the  university  and  hos- 
pital which  bear  his  name.  The  university  was  the 
first  to  open  its  doors,  inaugurating  as  its  first  presi- 
dent, that  renowned  educator,  Daniel  C.  Gilman,  in 


MAEYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  231 

1876.  He  remained  at  its  head  for  twenty-five  years 
and  was  succeeded  by  the  noted  chemist,  Ira  Kem- 
sen,  who  had  been  a  professor  at  the  university  from 
its  opening.  President  Oilman's  policy  was  to  es- 
tablish an  institution  which  should  lay  its  chief  em- 
phasis upon  systematic  graduate  instruction  leading 
to  the  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy.  He  insti- 
tuted a  system  of  fellowships  for  the  encouragement 
of  original  research  and  caused  the  physical  sciences 
to  take  a  more  prominent  place  than  they  were 
wont  to  do  in  other  American  universities.  The  pro- 
fessors were  carefully  selected  and  arrangements 
were  early  made  for  the  establishment  of  a  uni- 
versity press,  through  which  the  results  of  the  re- 
search of  professors  and  students  might  be  made 
public.  It  was  found  necessary  to  have  an  under- 
graduate department,  but,  as  no  dormitories  were 
provided  for  it,  its  students  have  been  chiefly  those 
residing  in  Baltimore  or  its  vicinity.  The  under- 
graduate institution  was  arranged  in  a  three-years' 
curriculum,  with  the  courses  combined  into  several 
groups,  following  in  general  the  method  which 
President  Gilman  had  used  while  he  was  director  of 
the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  at  Yale.  The  reputa- 
tion of  the  university  spread  with  a  perfectly  aston- 
ishing rapidity.  There  was  a  widespread  demand 
in  the  United  States  for  carefully  arranged  gradu- 
ate courses,  and  the  Johns  Hopkins  both  met  and 
stimulated  it.  The  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  was 
opened  in  1889  and  arrangements  were  at  once  made 
to  add  a  medical  school  to  the  university.  After 
careful  thought  and  the  selection  of  eminent  men 
to  fill  the  several  chairs,  the  school  was  opened  in 
1893,  and  from  the  very  first  took  a  front  rank 
among  the  medical  schools  of  the  world.  Its  stand- 
ards have  been  very  high  and  it  was  the  first 
medical  school  in  America  to  demand  of  every  one 


232  THE  HISTORY  OF  MARYLAND. 

entering  its  walls  a  bachelor's  degree  from  some 
college. 

Professional  education  has  flourished  greatly  in 
Baltimore  since  the  close  of  the  war.  The  Univer- 
sity of  Maryland  had  conducted  a  medical  school 
since  1807  and  continues  to  preserve  its  high  posi- 
tion. In  1882  it  established  a  dental  school,  and 
in  1904  it  annexed  the  Maryland  College  of  Phar- 
macy, while  the  faculty  of  law,  reorganized  in  1869, 
has  conducted  a  highly  successful  practical  school, 
at  which  the  instructors  have  been  the  leaders  of  the 
bench  and  bar  of  the  city.  Just  before  celebrating 
its  centennial  in  1907,  the  university  added  St. 
John's  College  at  Annapolis,  founded  in  1784,  as  its 
department  of  arts  and  sciences.  Among  the  inde- 
pendent medical  schools  which  have  flourished  in 
Baltimore  during  our  period  have  been  the  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  founded  in  1872,  and 
the  Baltimore  Medical  College,  founded  in  1882, 
while  the  Baltimore  University  School  of  Law, 
founded  in  1890,  and  the  Baltimore  Law  School, 
founded  in  1900,  have  trained  with  care  a  consider- 
able number  of  legal  practitioners.  The  establish- 
ment of  state  examining  boards  in  law  and  medicine 
has  done  a  great  deal  to  elevate  the  standard  of  these 
professions.  Although  many  educational  institu- 
tions must  be  omitted,  reference  is  necessary  to  the 
great  success  of  the  Maryland  Institute  Schools  of 
Art  and  Design,  under  the  presidency  of  Joseph  M. 
Cushing  and  the  directorship  of  Otto  Fuchs.  Al- 
though its  building  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1904, 
and  its  two  great  supporters  died  about  the  same 
time,  it  found  other  able  leaders  and  friends,  and 
now,  reestablished  in  two  fine  new  edifices  and  sub- 
sidized by  both  city  and  state,  it  is  able  to  do  a  more 
efficient  work  than  ever  before. 

In  1882  Enoch  Pratt,  a  wealthy  merchant  and 


MARYLAND  FROM  1865  TO  1909.  233 

financier  of  Baltimore,  offered  to  give  the  city  about 
eleven  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  public  circulating  library.  He  intended 
that  the  whole  city  be  served  by  the  library,  which 
should  comprise  a  system  consisting  of  a  central 
building  and  branches  in  different  localities,  and 
asked  that  the  institution  bear  his  name  and  that  the 
city  support  it  with  an  annuity  of  $50,000.  The  city 
accepted  the  gift,  the  buildings  were  erected,  Dr. 
Lewis  H.  Steiner  was  called  from  Frederick  to  or- 
ganize the  library,  and  it  was  opened  in  January, 
1886.  In  the  twenty  years  which  followed,  it  clearly 
demonstrated  its  extensive  usefulness  and  justified 
the  generosity  of  its  founder. 

Latest  of  all  the  important  educational  institu- 
tions of  Baltimore  came  the  Woman's  College, 
founded  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  1884, 
and  opened  four  years  later.  During  the  most  of 
its  existence  it  has  been  under  the  able  presidency 
of  Eev.  Dr.  J.  F.  Goucher,  whose  generous  donations 
to  it  have  been  very  considerable,  and  it  has  attained 
a  widespread  reputation  as  giving  a  well-balanced 
and  thorough  culture  to  women. 

Jacob  Tome,  a  wealthy  citizen  of  Port  Deposit,  in 
1889  endowed  the  secondary  school  which  bears  the 
name  of  Tome  Institute  and  is  situated  at  his  resi- 
dence. Owing  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Tome  left  it  sev- 
eral million  dollars,  the  institute  has  been  able  to 
maintain,  with  great  success,  a  boarding  school  for 
boys  and  day  schools  for  both  sexes.  About  1890, 
the  Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States  took  pos- 
session of  the  old  buildings  of  the  Female  Seminary 
at  Frederick  and  established  therein  a  school  of  high 
order  for  girls.  We  have  devoted  thus  much  space 
to  educational  matters  because  in  no  other  way  has 
the  progress  of  Maryland  been  more  marked  during 
the  past  forty  years. 


234  THE  HISTOKY  OF  MARYLAND. 

In  the  line  of  charities  and  correction,  great  prog- 
ress has  also  been  made.  At  the  very  beginning  of 
our  period  was  held  the  great  Southern  Belief  Fair 
for  the  aid  of  the  former  slaveholding  states,  and 
the  whole  period  has  been  marked  not  only  by  bene- 
ficent acts,  but  by  systematic  development  of  orga- 
nized charity.  In  Baltimore  City  the  Charity  Or- 
ganization Society  and  the  Association  for  the  Im- 
provement of  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  after  a  pe- 
riod of  effective  separate  work,  have  united  them- 
selves for  greater  effectiveness  in  the  Federated 
Charities.  A  house  of  correction  for  short-term 
prisoners  was  opened  at  Jessups  in  1877,  and  a  long 
and  wise  wardenship  of  the  penitentiary  has  re- 
sulted in  that  institution  returning  a  revenue  to  the 
state,  while  the  moral  character  of  the  convicts  has 
been  much  benefited  by  the  treatment  received 
while  incarcerated  and  by  the  efforts  of  the  Prison- 
ers Aid  Society.  The  character  of  the  county  jails 
still  leaves  much  to  be  desired,  however,  and,  to 
Maryland's  disgrace,  she  still  postpones  providing 
for  all  her  insane  and  feebleminded  in  state  institu- 
tions, though  excellent  care  is  given  to  those  who  can 
be  received  in  the  institutions  already  established. 
Training  of  the  feebleminded  was  begun  in  1889,  and 
an  excellent  institution  is  maintained  at  Owings 
Mills,  but  is  not  able  to  accommodate  all  who  need 
its  care.  A  State  Board  of  Aid  and  Charities  was 
established  in  1900,  but  has  not  yet  attained  to  the 
desired  stage  of  efficiency. 

Religion. 

In  religious  matters,  the  development  has  been 
steady.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church,  under  the 
statesmanlike  direction  of  Archbishops  Spaulding 
and  Bayly  and  Cardinal  Gibbons,  and  the  Lutheran 
churches  have  handled  admirably  the  problems  of 


MARYLAND  FBOM  1865  TO  1909.  235 

assimilating  immigrants.  The  Methodist  churches 
have  been  active  and  retain  their  numerical  pre- 
dominance among  Protestant  denominations,  while 
the  work  of  the  Baptists  and  Presbyterians,  and  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopalians  forcefully  led  by 
Bishop  Paret,  has  been  noteworthy  among  the  forces 
that  make  for  righteousness.  A  large  Hebrew  im- 
migration from  the  east  of  Europe  has  diversified 
considerably  the  population  of  Baltimore  City. 

In  general,  the  history  of  Maryland  since  1865  has 
been  one  filled  with  achievement  and  with  such  a 
spirit  as  to  make  one  hopeful  as  to  the  future  and 
confident  in  the  determination  of  the  people  to  make 
the  state  embrace  its  opportunities  and  advance  to 
a  high  position  among  American  commonwealths. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Brackett,  J.  R.:  Progress  of  the  Colored  People  in 
Maryland  (1890);  Forrester,  A.  E.:  (comp.)  City  Hall  of  Baltimore 
(1877);  Oilman,  D.  C.:  Launching  of  a  University  (1906);  Gambrill,  C. 
M.:  School  History  of  Maryland  (1903);  Hollander,  J.  H.:  Guide  to  Balti- 
more (1893);  Hollander,  J.  H.:  Financial  History  of  Baltimore  (1899); 
Howard,  G.  W.:  (ed.)  Monumental  City  (1889);  Maryland  Geological 
Survey  Reports  (1897-1908);  Maryland  Historical  Society:  Report  on  the 
Western  Boundary  of  the  State;  McSherry,  James:  History  of  Maryland, 
continued  by  B.  B.  James  (1904);  Nelson,  S.  B.  (comp.):  History  of 
Baltimore  (1898);  Passano,  L.  M.:  School  History  of  Maryland  (1900); 
Riley,  E.  S.:  Ancient  City  (Annapolis)  (1887);  Riley,  E.  S.:  Legislative 
History  of  Maryland  (1906);  Schultz,  E.  S.:  History  of  Free  Masonry  in 
Maryland,  4  vols.  (1884-88);  Scharf,  T.  J.:  Western  Maryland  (1882); 
History  of  Maryland,  Vol.  III.  (1897),  Baltimore  City  and  County  (1881), 
and  Chronicles  of  Baltimore  (1874);  Sioussat,  St.  G.  L.:  Baltimore  (1900); 
Spencer,  E.  (ed.):  Baltimore's  Anniversary,  1730-1880  (1881):  Steiner, 
Bernard  C. :  Citizenship  and  Suffrage  in  Maryland  (1896),  Life  of  Reverdy 
Johnson  (1908),  History  of  Education  in  Maryland  (1894),  and  Institu- 
tions and  Civil  Government  in  Maryland  (1899);  Whealton.  L.  N.:  Vir- 
ginia Boundary  of  Maryland  (1906);  Williams,  T.  J.  C.:  Washington 
County  (2  vols.,  1906). 

BERNARD  C.  STEINER, 

Librarian,  The  Enoch  Pratt  Free  Library;  Associate  in  History 
Johns  Hopkint  University. 


THE   HISTORY  OF   KENTUCKY. 


CHAPTER  I. 
KENTUCKY  A  PAET  OF  VIRGINIA,  1606—1792. 

Finding  of  Kentucky. 

'  HE  early  explorers  of  this  continent  gave 
the  name  of  Virginia  to  all  that  vast  re- 
gion lying  along  the  Atlantic  coast  and 
of  undefined  boundary  on  the  west,  which, 
in  the  era  of  territorial  acquisition  in  the 
New  World,  was  claimed  by  England. 

On  April  10,  1606,  the  first  English  charter  for 
the  establishment  of  colonies  in  North  America  was 
signed  by  King  James  I.  This  grant  provided  for 
the  founding  of  two  colonies,  but  for  the  purposes 
of  this  article  one  only,  the  " Southern,"  need  be 
mentioned.  It  was  to  be  planted  anywhere  between 
34  and  41  degrees  of  N.  latitude,  and  to  extend  fifty 
miles  north  and  fifty  south  of  the  spot  first  chosen 
for  settlement,  and  fifty  miles  inland. 

In  1609  this  charter  was  amended  and  the  bound- 
aries of  the  colony  enlarged.  They  were  to  extend 
200  miles  north  and  200  miles  south  of  Old  Point 
Comfort,  at  the  mouth  of  the  James  Eiver,  and  "up 
into  the  land  from  sea  to  sea. ' ' 

Col.  Reuben  T.  Durret  in  his  address  delivered 
June  1,  1892,  at  the  celebration  of  the  centenary  of 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          237 

Kentucky,  furnished  an  exhaustive  and  interesting 
account  of  the  explorations  beyond  the  mountains. 

"Two  explorers,"  he  said,  "of  different  nationalities,  but  in  pursuance 
of  the  same  wild  hope  of  a  waterway  across  the  continent  to  the  Pacific, 
discovered  Kentucky  almost  at  the  same  time.  They  were  Capt. 
Thomas  Batts,  a  Virginian  of  whom  nothing  but  this  discovery  is  known, 
and  Robert  Cavalier  de  La  Salle,  whose  explorations  in  America  made 
him  known  in  both  hemispheres  ...  In  1671,  Gen.  Abraham  Wood, 
by  the  authority  of  Governor  Berkeley,  sent  Capt.  Thomas  Batts  with  a 
party  of  explorers  to  the  west  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains  in  search  of 
a  river  leading  to  China.  The  journal  of  their  route  is  rendered  obscure 
by  meagre  description  and  the  changes  of  the  country  and  the  names 
since  it  was  written,  but  it  is  possible  that  they  went  to  the  Roanoke, 
and,  ascending  to  its  head  waters,  crossed  over  to  the  sources  of  the 
Kanawha,  which  they  descended  to  its  falls.  Whether  they  wandered 
southward  to  the  Big  Sandy  and  crossed  over  into  Kentucky  we  cannot 
determine  from  their  journal;  but  whether  they  did  so  or  not,  they  were 
in  that  part  of  Virginia  of  which  Kentucky  was  a  part,  and  then:  dis- 
coveries would  open  the  way  to  the  one  as  well  as  to  the  other. 

"Less  doubtfully  connected  with  the  discovery  of  Kentucky  is  the 
name  and  fame  of  La  Salle,  one  of  the  greatest  explorers  of  the  Seven- 
teenth century.  ...  At  the  age  of  twenty-three  he  came  to  America 
to  devote  his  great  enthusiasm  and  indomitable  energy  to  the  solution 
of  the  problem  of  a  great  transcontinental  river  running  towards  China. 
...  In  1669  some  Seneca  Indians  hastened  his  plans  by  telling  him 
that  there  was  a  river  that  rose  in  their  country  and  wound  its  way 
southward  and  westward  to  the  distant  sea.  This  was  evidently  ex- 
tending the  Alleghany,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Mississippi  into  one  great  river, 
and  it  so  fired  the  imagination  of  La  Salle  that  he  at  once  began  prepara- 
tions to  explore  it.  He  entered  the  Alleghany  by  a  tributary  near  its 
source,  and  followed  it  and  the  Ohio  through  the  wild  forests  on  their 
banks  until  he  reached  the  falls  where  Louisville  now  stands.  In  making 
this  long  journey  he  was  the  discoverer  of  Kentucky  from  the  Big  Sandy 
to  the  rapids  of  the  Ohio." 

Almost  another  century  elapsed  after  the  dis- 
coveries of  Batts  and  La  Salle  before  authentic  in- 
formation about  this  territory  was  obtained.  In 
July,  1749,  the  Virginia  Council  authorized  the 
Loyal  Company  to  enter  and  survey  800,000  acres 
of  the  public  lands  of  Virginia,  upon  which  families 
should  be  settled.  These  lands  were  to  be  located 
north  of  the  line  dividing  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
lina, and  to  extend  westward.  Dr.  Thomas  Walker 
was  selected  by  the  Company  to  locate  these  lands. 


238  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

With  a  party  of  five  men  he  began  his  journey 
into  the  wilderness  on  March  16,  1750.  Having 
crossed  the  valleys  of  the  Clinch  and  Powell  rivers, 
as  they  were  afterwards  called,  he  came  to  that 
branch  of  the  Appalachian  range  which  he  named, 
and  which  is  now  called,  the  Cumberland  Mountains. 
He  bestowed  the  same  appellation  on  the  river 
flowing  along  its  northwestern  slope.  Skirting  the 
mountains  to  find  an  opening,  he  entered  what  is 
now  Kentucky  through  Cumberland  Gap. 

Ascending  the  Cumberland  River  to  a  point  near 
the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Barbourville,  Walker 
erected  on  the  northwest  side  of  the  river  a  log- 
house  twelve  by  eight  feet  in  dimensions,  which  he 
hoped  would  be  the  headquarters  of  a  future  settle- 
ment. Clearing  a  small  plot  of  ground  around  this 
cabin,  he  planted  corn  and  peach  stones.  This  little 
cabin  was  finished  April  15,  1750,  and  "was,"  says 
Colonel  Durrett,  "the  first  house  built  in  Kentucky 
by  white  men." 

The  Ohio  Company  had  also  been  authorized  to 
locate  500,000  acres  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio  River 
and  settle  families  thereon.  Christopher  Gist  was 
appointed  its  agent  to  select  these  lands.  He  en- 
tered the  designated  territory  at  a  point  opposite 
the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  on  March  13,  1751,  ascended 
the  Licking  River,  crossed  to  the  headwaters  of  the 
Kentucky  and  came  out  by  way  of  Cumberland  Gap. 

The  time,  however,  was  unpropitious  for  such 
enterprises  and  neither  company  was  a  financial 
success.  The  Loyal  Company  surveyed  201,554 
acres  of  its  grant,  and  was  allowed  title  to  45,390 
acres.  The  Ohio  Company  located  200,000  acres 
on  the  Licking  River,  but  the  scheme  to  settle  fam- 
ilies on  these  lands  failed  utterly.  The  French  and 
Indian  War,  the  King's  proclamation,  issued  in 
1763,  forbidding  settlement  on  lands  beyond  the 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          239 

sources  of  rivers  flowing  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
and  finally  the  Revolutionary  War  effectually  inter- 
fered with  it. 

But  the  time  was  coming  when  a  very  different 
character  of  exploration  was  to  be  inaugurated. 
The  day  of  curious  or  scientific  exploration,  or  that 
attempted  in  the  interest  of  chartered  companies, 
intent  on  "gainful"  investment,  was  past.  Men 
like  Walker  and  Gist  were  to  be  succeeded  by  men 
like  Boone  and  Kenton.  Henceforth  the  wilderness 
was  to  be  penetrated,  as  it  was  finally  to  be  con- 
quered, by  the  hardy  and  adventurous  "pioneer." 
White  men,  almost  as  restless  and  tameless  in 
temper  as  the  Indian  himself,  were  about  to  enter 
the  forests  of  this  much-coveted  region.  This  class 
of  explorers  meant  really  to  settle ;  to  clear  away  a 
part  of  the  dense  woodland  and  make  themselves 
abodes;  and  they  sought  fertile  lands  and  pleasant 
waters,  so  that  plenty  and  comfort  might  dwell 
with  them  in  their  future  homes.  But  they  were 
hunters  rather  than  husbandmen;  they  expected  to 
live  rather  by  the  chase  than  by  the  cultivation  of 
the  soil.  An  abundance  of  game  was  the  chief  de- 
sideratum, and  their  first  duty  the  defense  of  them- 
selves and  families  against  the  savage.  Originally 
their  habitations  and  the  "stations" — the  small 
collections  of  cabins  established  for  mutual  protec- 
tion— were  widely  separated.  But  immigration 
poured  in  with  a  rapidity  which,  under  the  circum- 
stances, was  marvelous ;  so  that  in  less  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  after  actual  settlement  began  the 
population  was  sufficiently  numerous  to  form  an- 
other commonwealth  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union. 

The  inevitable  conflict  between  France  and  Eng- 
land for  supremacy  upon  this  continent  was  at  hand 
— the  struggle  that  was  to  determine  which  should 
rule  it  and  the  character  of  its  future  institutions. 


240  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

England  was  looking  inland  from  the  frontiers 
of  her  colonies  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  claim- 
ing an  immense  realm,  comparatively  little  of  which 
had  been  explored.  The  people  of  those  colonies 
felt  in  full  vigor  the  spirit  which  had  impelled  their 
fathers  to  seek  fortune  and  empire  beyond  the  seas. 
The  ancestral  instinct  of  emigration  had  been 
strengthened  and  stimulated  by  generations  of  life 
in  the  New  World. 

The  Crown  and  the  councils  might  strive  to  con- 
fine its  manifestations  within  certain  limits,  but 
royal  proclamations  were  of  slight  avail  against  an 
impulse  as  general  as  it  was  natural.  Not  even  a 
king's  edict  could  hold  back  the  host  of  dauntless 
"Knights-errant  of  the  "Woods,"  whom  neither 
danger  nor  distance,  toil  nor  any  hardship  could 
appal. 

While  French  settlement  in  North  America  was 
begun  even  earlier  than  the  English,  the  French 
evinced  neither  such  aptitude  for  the  work  of  col- 
onization, nor  the  same  energy  and  persistency  in 
its  prosecution  as  did  their  rivals.  In  1542,  soon 
after  Cartier  had  sailed  along  the  mainland  of  Can- 
ada and  into  the  estuary  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
Koberval  established  the  first  French  settlement. 
Quebec  was  not  founded  until  1608.  Immigration  to 
these  colonies  was  slow,  and  when,  in  1754,  the  final 
grapple  between  the  rival  powers  came,  the  total 
number  of  white  inhabitants  in  the  French  posses- 
sions in  America  was  less  than  100,000,  while  the 
English  colonies  numbered  more  than  1,000,000. 

Nevertheless  France  entertained  the  hope  of  com- 
plete dominion  upon  the  continent,  and  at  an  early 
date  prepared  to  secure  military  control  of  it. 

In  1673  Marquette  and  Joliet  descended  the 
Mississippi  River  to  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas. 
The  geographical  information  furnished  by  Mar- 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          241 

quette's  expedition  turned  La  Salle  from  his  chimer- 
ical qnest  for  the  river  flowing  to  China  to  one 
worthier  of  his  genius  and  enthusiasm.  He  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  establishing  French  rule  and 
directing  French  immigration  throughout  the  vast 
territory  lying  along  the  Mississippi  and  its  tribu- 
tary waters.  In  1678  he  was  commissioned  to  com- 
plete the  explorations  begun  by  Marquette.  He  fol- 
lowed the  great  stream  to  its  mouth  and  reached  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  in  the  spring  of  1682. 

The  almost  boundless  domain  stretching  the  en- 
tire length  of  the  Mississippi  and  extending  to  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  was  now  christened  New 
France,  and  France  made  ready  to  maintain  her 
claim  to  that  part  of  it  which  would  certainly  be 
disputed. 

A  chain  of  French  forts  and  military  posts  was 
established  at  points  of  immediate  strategic  value, 
but  apparently  future  commercial  possibilities  were 
considered  in  their  selection.  Important  cities — 
Toledo,  Detroit,  Fort  Wayne,  Vincennes,  Natchez- 
have  been  built  on  the  sites  so  chosen. 

The  surveys  made  by  the  Ohio  Company,  and 
which  were  deemed  an  intrusion  into  French  terri- 
tory, probably  precipitated  hostilities.  Eegular 
troops  were  employed  on  both  sides  in  this  war,  but 
the  larger  number  of  the  combatants  were  the  In- 
dian allies  of  the  French  and  the  British  colonial 
militia.  The  war  terminated  in  1760  with  the  fall 
of  Quebec  and  Montreal,  and  France  was  compelled 
to  surrender  all  the  disputed  territory  and  both  the 
Canadas. 

Settlement  of  Kentucky. 

The  people  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  now 
looked  with  greater  longing  on  the  rich,  unoccupied 
lands  along  their  western  borders,  and  those  who 
came  "came  to  stay."  But  a  grave  and  imminent 

Vol.  1     18. 


242  THE  HISTOKY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

danger  now  menaced  the  immigrant.  The  peace 
concluded  between  the  two  great  powers  did  not 
bind  and  had  no  meaning  for  the  white  pioneers 
who  desired,  and  the  red  warriors  who  claimed,  and, 
in  rude  fashion,  possessed  this  region. 

The  Delawares,  Mingoes,  Wyandottes  and  Shaw- 
nees,  who  dwelt  north  of  the  Ohio,  and  the  Indians 
inhabiting  the  country  farther  to  the  south,  the 
most  numerous  and  powerful  of  whom  were  the 
Cherokees,  all  jealously  guarded  this  territory  as  a 
valuable  hunting  ground  and  fiercely  resented  the 
presence  of  the  whites. 

In  1767  Michael  Stoner  and  James  Harrod,  the 
latter  one  of  the  most  striking  figures  of  the  pioneer 
period,  entered  Kentucky,  and  in  the  same  year 
John  Findlay  with  two  or  three  companions  hunted 
over  much  of  the  northern  part  of  it.  Upon  his 
return  Findlay  gave  so  glowing  an  account  of  the 
wonderful  fertility  of  the  country  that  he  enlisted 
in  the  ranks  of  its  explorers  the  man  destined  to  be 
the  most  famous  and  useful  of  them  all. 

Daniel  Boone  came  of  good  strong  English  stock. 
His  grandfather  emigrated  in  1717  with  his  wife 
and  eleven  children  to  Pennsylvania.  In  1748,  when 
Daniel  was  yet  a  youth,  his  father,  Squire  Boone, 
removed  to  North  Carolina  and  located  at  Holman  's 
Ford  on  the  Yadkin  River.  From  his  earliest  boy- 
hood Boone  evinced  the  roving  and  adventurous 
disposition  and  the  love  of  the  wild  wood  which 
characterized  him  throughout  his  life.  He  married 
Eebecca  Bryan  about  1755,  but  even  after  he  became 
a  husband  and  father  the  life  of  the  hunter  and  the 
pleasures  and  the  perils  of  the  wilderness  irre- 
sistibly attracted  him. 

He  had  already  grown  dissatisfied  with  the  in- 
crease of  population  and  diminution  of  game  in  his 
settlement  on  the  Yadkin,  and  Findlay 's  description 


DANIEL  BOONE. 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          243 

of  the  magnificent  and  untenanted  region  whence 
he  had  just  come  determined  Boone  upon  the  career 
which  has  indissolubly  connected  his  name  with  that 
of  Kentucky  and  with  the  history  of  the  great  West. 

The  popular  idea  of  Boone  is  largely  a  mistaken 
one.  The  romance  with  which  the  life  and  memory 
of  the  old  backwoodsman  is  surrounded  makes  it 
difficult  to  correctly  observe  or  justly  estimate  him. 
Some  who  admire  but  know  little  about  him  believe 
that  he  was  the  first  explorer  of  Kentucky.  Others 
with  better  excuse,  yet  unjustly,  think  he  was  a  mere 
hunter,  a  kindly,  well-meaning  vagrant.  He  was,  in 
fact,  a  man  of  strong  character,  unusual  sagacity 
and  clearly  defined  purpose.  His  judgment  in  all 
matters  within  his  knowledge  was  singularly  accu- 
rate, and  he  perfectly  realized  that  he  was  assisting 
to  found  a  commonwealth. 

He  had  in  greater  degree  than  any  of  his  com- 
peers the  qualities  necessary  to  cope  with  the  situa- 
tion. Kenton,  more  recklessly  daring,  was  nearly 
his  equal  in  woodcraft  and  knowledge  of  Indian 
character  and  customs.  Harrod  and  Logan  were 
as  courageous  and  resolute,  and  as  prompt  to  aid  the 
distressed,  or  risk  life  in  behalf  of  an  imperilled 
comrade ;  but  all  contemporary  evidence  compels  us 
to  believe  that  Boone  was  first  among  them. 

On  May  6,  1769,  Boone,  Findlay  and  four  others 
began  their  journey  to  the  ''land  of  promise/'  as 
they  had  come  to  regard  it.  Traveling  by  the  neces- 
sarily circuitous  route  through  the  mountains,  a 
month  elapsed  before  they  reached  Cumberland 
Gap,  and  on  June  7  Boone  gazed  for  the  first  time 
on  Kentucky. 

He  remained  for  nearly  two  years,  traversing  and 
becoming  acquainted  with  the  greater  part  of  cen- 
tral Kentucky.  He  was  made  prisoner  by  the  In- 
dians during  this  period,  an  experience  repeated 


244  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

more  than  once  afterwards ;  but  with  his  companion 
in  captivity,  John  Stewart,  escaped  after  a  week's 
detention.  His  brother,  Squire  Boone,  sought  and 
found  him  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  and  these  two 
only,  of  the  entire  party,  passed  safely  through  the 
multitude  of  perils  which  encompassed  it.  Boone 
returned  to  North  Carolina  in  March,  1771,  but 
firmly  resolved  to  make  his  future  home  in  Ken- 
tucky. 

In  1773  surveys  were  made  in  Kentucky  by 
Thomas  Bullitt,  Hancock  Taylor  and  the  McAfees, 
and  in  1774  by  Floyd,  Douglas  and  Hite.  In  1773 
Bullitt  surveyed  the  land  on  which  the  city  of  Louis- 
ville now  stands.  In  1774  James  Harrod  built  a 
number  of  cabins  for  his  party  of  men,  which  was 
the  beginning  of  the  present  town  of  Harrodsburg, 
and  in  April,  1775,  Boone  came  with  twenty  men  and 
built  the  fort  on  the  Kentucky  Eiver  at  Boonesbor- 
ough,  where  Henderson  joined  him  with  thirty 
others.  No  white  woman  or  child  had  ever  been  in 
Kentucky  until  Boone 's  family  arrived  in  the  fol- 
lowing September,  and  shortly  afterwards  came  the 
families  of  Hugh  McGary,  Thomas  Denton  and 
Eichard  Hogan. 

No  writer  has  given  a  more  graphic  description 
of  the  early  pioneer  life  than  this  one  by  Durrett: 

"The  first  inhabitants  of  Kentucky,  on  account  of  the  hostility  of  the 
Indians,  lived  in  what  were  called  forts.  These  structures  were  simply 
rows  of  the  conventional  log  cabins  of  the  day,  built  on  four  sides  of  a 
square  or  parallelogram,  which  remained  as  a  court  or  open  space  be- 
tween them.  It  served  as  a  playground,  a  muster-field,  a  corral  for 
domestic  animals,  and  a  store-house  for  implements.  The  cabins  which 
formed  the  fort's  walls  were  dwellings  for  the  people,  and  contained  the 
rudest  conveniences  of  life.  The  bedstead  consisted  of  forks  driven  in 
the  dirt  floor,  through  the  prongs  of  which  poles  extended  to  cracks  in 
the  walls,  over  which  buffalo  skins  were  spread  for  a  mattress  and  bear 
skins  for  covering.  The  dining-table  was  a  broad  puncheon,  hewn  smooth 
with  an  adze,  and  set  on  legs  made  of  sticks  inserted  in  auger  holes.  The 
chairs  were  three-legged  stools,  and  the  ta'.  le  f  i ;  -aiture  consisted  of  wood- 
en plates,  trays,  noggins,  bowls  and  trenchers,  usually  turned  out  of  the 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          245 

buckeye.  The  fireplace  occupied  nearly  one  whole  side  of  the  house; 
the  window  was  a  hole  covered  with  paper  saturated  with  bear's  grease; 
and  the  door,  an  opening  over  which  hung  a  buffalo  skin.  Near  the 
door  hung  the  long-barrelled  flint-lock  rifle  on  buck's  horns  pinned  to  the 
wall,  and  from  which  it  was  never  absent  except  when  in  use.  In  these 
confined  cabins  whole  families  occupied  a  single  room.  Here  the 
women  hackled  the  wild  nettle,  carded  the  buffalo  wool,  spun  the  thread, 
wove  the  cloth,  and  made  the  clothes.  The  men  wore  buckskin  hunting 
shirts,  trousers,  and  moccasins;  and  the  women  linsey  gowns  in  winter 
and  linen  in  summer.  Such  a  life  had  its  pains,  but  it  also  had  its 
pleasures.  Of  evenings  and  rainy  days,  the  fiddle  was  heard,  and  the 
merry  old  Virginia  reel  danced  by  both  young  and  old.  A  marriage, 
that  sometimes  united  a  boy  of  sixteen  to  a  girl  of  fourteen,  was  an  occa- 
sion of  great  merriment.  When  an  itinerant  preacher  came  and  favored 
them  with  a  sermon  two  or  three  hours  long,  it  was  also  a  great  occasion. 
A  young  man  might  have  difficulty  in  making  his  sweetheart  understand 
all  he  wished  to  say  in  a  small  room  filled  by  the  members  of  her  family, 
but,  when  essential,  it  was  easy  to  remove  the  discussion  to  the  open 
space.  The  shooting  match,  foot-race,  wrestling,  jumping,  boxing,  and 
sometimes  fighting  afforded  amusement  out  of  doors,  and  blindfold, 
hide  and  seek,  quiltings,  knittings,  and  candy  pullings  often  made  the 
little  cabins  merry.  The  corn-field  and  vegetable  garden  were  cultivated 
within  rifle  range  of  the  fort,  and  sentinels  stood  guard  while  the  work 
went  on." 

In  1775  immigration  began  to  flow  in,  and  al- 
though it  was  occasionally  arrested,  even  for  brief 
periods  turned  back,  the  country  was  settled  with 
remarkable  rapidity.  Yet  the  conditions  might  have 
altogether  deterred  a  people  of  less  nerve.  "Lord 
Dunmore's  War"  had  maddened  the  Indians  north 
of  the  Ohio  to  implacable  fury.  Although  the  Dela- 
wares,  Shawnees  and  Wyandottes  were  completely 
defeated  at  Point  Pleasant,  the  whites  had  also  suf- 
fered severely.  The  subsequent  ruthless  devas- 
tation of  the  Indian  villages  in  the  Scioto  Valley 
made  real  peace  between  the  two  races  impos- 
sible. 

At  this  time  a  remarkable  episode  in  the  history 
of  Kentucky  occurred — something  which  might  be 
classed  with  the  colossal  enterprises  of  to-day. 
Bichard  Henderson  and  eight  other  citizens  of 
North  Carolina  organized  the  Transylvania  Com- 
pany, and  without  pretense  of  authority — indeed, 


246  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

in  violation  of  the  known  policy  and  express  com- 
mand of  both  royal  and  colonial  authority — pur- 
chased from  the  Southern  Indians  a  great  part  of 
the  most  fertile  territory  of  Kentucky. 

On  March  17, 1775,  those  gentlemen  met  a  number 
of  the  Cherokee  chiefs  at  Wataga,  in  North  Caro- 
lina, and  took  from  them  a  deed  to  a  tract  of  land 
which  began  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky  Kiver, 
running  with  that  stream  to  its  source,  thence  fol- 
lowing the  crest  of  the  mountains  to  the  source  of 
the  Cumberland,  thence  down  that  river  to  the  Ohio, 
and  thence  up  the  Ohio  to  the  beginning.  In  this 
tract  were  nearly  20,000,000  acres. 

The  consideration,  expressed,  for  this  immense 
concession  was  £10,000  sterling.  In  reality,  the  In- 
dians received  ten  or  twelve  wagon-loads  of  cheap 
goods  and  trinkets  and  a  supply  of  "fire  water." 

The  audacity  of  this  transaction  may  be  con- 
ceived when  it  is  remembered  that  the  colonies 
claimed  these  lands  under  the  royal  grants,  and 
Virginia  had  already  passed  acts  forbidding  the 
purchase  of  lands  from  the  Indians  by  private  in- 
dividuals. Lord  Dunmore  issued  his  proclamation 
denouncing  all  concerned  in  it  as  disorderly  persons 
who  should  be  deprived  of  their  pretended  purchase 
and  punished  if  they  persisted  in  asserting  title. 
Governor  Martin,  of  North  Carolina,  made  similar 
proclamation. 

Nevertheless  the  scheme  was  at  first  popular 
with  the  settlers,  and  seemed  for  a  short  time  des- 
tined to  succeed.  Henderson,  on  the  part  of  the 
proprietors  of  the  colony,  opened  a  land  office  at 
Boonesborough,  and  in  a  few  months  issued  war- 
rants for  560,000  acres.  He  proposed  to  establish 
an  independent  government,  and  with  that  end  in 
view  called  a  convention  which  met  at  Boonesbor- 
ough on  May  23. 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          247 
Kentucky  a  County  in  Virginia. 

The  population  of  the  four  stations  of  Boones- 
borough,  Harrodsburg,  Boiling  Springs  and  St. 
Asaphs  (Logan's  Fort)  was  then  perhaps  200. 
These  stations  sent  delegates  to  the  convention, 
which  assumed  legislative  functions  and  during  its 
session  of  five  days  passed  a  number  of  bills.  Hen- 
derson appointed  both  civil  and  military  officials. 

All  of  these  proceedings  were,  of  course,  annulled 
by  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia;  but  as  an 
equitable  compensation  for  the  expense  incurred 
and  their  efforts  to  promote  immigration  Virginia 
and  South  Carolina  each  granted  Henderson  and 
his  colleagues  200,000  acres  of  their  public  lands. 

The  number  and  population  of  the  stations  rap- 
idly increased,  and  in  1776  the  demand  for  their 
organization  into  a  separate  county  became  general 
and  pressing.  The  inconvenience  of  having  to  seek 
distant  tribunals  for  an  administration  of  law,  and 
the  necessity  of  a  county  court,  justices  of  the  peace 
and  a  sheriff  were  urged  by  the  settlers  and  recog- 
nized by  Virginia.  Until  this  date  all  of  the  pub- 
lic and  unoccupied  lands  of  Virginia — an  immense 
area — were  included  in  the  county  of  Fincastle. 
The  legislature  passed  an  act  Dec.  31,  1776,  divid- 
ing Fincastle  into  three  counties,  one  of  which  was 
called  Kentucky.  This  county  comprised  the  same 
territory  which  subsequently  became  the  state  of 
Kentucky.  It  elected  burgesses  to  the  General  As- 
sembly of  Virginia  in  April,  1777,  and  the  first 
court  held  in  it  was  at  Harrodsburg  in  September 
of  that  year. 

In  May,  1780,  Kentucky  county  was  subdivided 
into  the  three  counties  of  Jefferson,  Lincoln  and 
Fayette.  In  1784  Nelson  county  was  formed  out  of 
part  of  Jefferson.  In  1785  Mercer  and  Madison 
counties  were  formed  out  of  parts  of  Lincoln,  and 


248  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

Bourbon  out  of  part  of  Fayette.  In  1788  Bourbon 
was  divided  and  Mason  county  made  of  the  part 
subtracted,  and  in  the  same  year  Woodford  county 
was  formed  of  territory  again  taken  from  Fayette. 
These  nine  counties  constituted  the  commonwealth 
of  Kentucky  when  she  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
in  1792. 

Indian  hostility  to  the  Kentucky  immigrant,  al- 
ways dangerous,  was  displayed  more  frequently  and 
actively  toward  the  close  of  the  year  1776.  The 
Indian  hated  the  actual  settler  as  his  immediate  dis- 
possessor,  the  man  whom  he  saw  in  possession  of 
the  land  he  claimed.  Moreover,  a  power  once  used 
to  protect  the  settler  was  now  turned  against  him. 
When  the  American  colonies  renounced  and  defied 
the  royal  authority,  English  influence,  instead  of 
being  exerted  to  restrain,  was  employed  to  incite 
the  red  savage  to  ferocious  warfare.  Armed  and 
encouraged  by  the  British  commanders,  the  war- 
riors of  the  tribes  north  of  the  Ohio  repeatedly  en- 
tered Kentucky  and  attacked  the  settlements. 

These  demonstrations  were  so  continuous  and 
numerous  during  the  years  1777  and  1778  that  the 
settlers,  harassed  to  the  limit  of  endurance  and 
almost  reduced  to  despair,  seemed  about  to  give  up 
the  struggle  and  quit  the  field.  The  abandonment 
of  every  widely  separated  cabin  was  compelled;  no 
man  dared  to  live  outside  of  the  protection  of  the 
stockade.  The  daughters  of  Boone  and  Galloway 
were  made  prisoners  within  sight  of  Boonesbor- 
ough.  Every  station  was  constantly  menaced  and 
at  some  time  assaulted.  The  important  ones  were 
more  than  once  regularly  besieged  by  forces,  which, 
compared  numerically  with  the  garrisons,  might 
be  termed  formidable.  Boonesborough  was  twice 
so  beleaguered,  at  one  time  for  thirteen  days  in 
September,  1778,  by  Duquesne  with  eleven  French- 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK. 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIEGINIA.          249 

men  and  400  Indians  under  Blackfish.  Boats  plying 
on  Salt  River  and  other  streams  were  captured  and 
their  crews  massacred,  and  tradition  teems  with 
stories  of  bloody  combats  and  deadly  duels  fought 
in  the  shades  of  the  forest. 

Kentucky's  Part  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

That  the  Kentucky  settlers  should  have  been  able 
to  maintain  their  ground  in  such  straits  seems  al- 
most incredible.  It  was  due  first  to  their  own  cour- 
age and  indomitable  purpose,  but  must  be  also 
largely  attributed  to  the  energy,  sagacity  and  genius 
of  George  Eogers  Clark.  Clark  was  born  in  Albe- 
marle  county,  Virginia,  and  was  not  quite  twenty- 
three  years  old  when  he  came  to  Kentucky  in  1775. 
His  occupation  was  that  of  land  surveyor,  but  he 
had  already  evinced  military  aptitude,  having 
served  with  credit  as  captain  of  a  company  in  the 
Dunmore  War.  He  remained  but  a  brief  time  on 
his  first  visit,  but  must  have  made  a  favorable  im- 
pression, for  soon  after  his  return  in  1776  he  and 
Gabriel  Jones  were  delegated  by  a  general  meeting 
held  at  Harrodsburg  to  represent  to  the  Virginia 
authorities  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Kentucky  and 
ask  effective  aid. 

Clark's  chief  characteristics  were  a  remarkably 
shrewd,  sound  judgment,  daring  enterprise  and  a 
faculty  of  prompt  decision,  with  that  magnetism 
which  wins  affection  and  commands  obedience.  He 
had  in  marked  degree  the  physical  traits  as  essen- 
tial to  leadership  among  the  rude,  fighting  back- 
woodsmen he  was  to  command  as  any  mental  or 
moral  superiority.  He  was  more  than  six  feet  in 
height  and  very  strong,  agile  and  enduring. 

Clark  was  unquestionably  the  first  to  realize  the 
only  policy  that  promised  safety.  He  saw  that  these 
isolated  communities  so  few  in  number,  scanty  in 


250  THE  HISTOEY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

population  and  distant  from  support  must  st»c- 
cumb  if  the  attacks  of  the  Indians  were  systemat- 
ically continued.  He  discerned  more  clearly  than 
anyone  else  that  behind  the  Indian  was  an  influence 
which  controlled  his  wild  nature  and  could  give 
methodical  direction  to  his  hostility.  In  only  one 
way  could  the  ultimate  and  certain  destruction  of 
the  settlement  be  averted.  That  was  to  strike  the 
beast  in  his  lair ;  teach  him  that  he,  too,  was  vulner- 
able, and  above  all  eliminate  the  influence  which 
was  inciting  his  incursions.  In  this  way  Indian  ag- 
gression might  be  minimized  and  rendered  less 
dangerous,  and  the  settlements  obtain  some  respite 
until  they  were  strong  enough  to  protect  them- 
selves. 

A  plan  based  on  this  idea  was  submitted  by  Clark 
to  the  Virginia  officials  and  was  unanimously  ap- 
proved, receiving  the  hearty  endorsement  of  Patrick 
Henry  and  Thomas  Jefferson.  Every  encourage- 
ment and  some  material  aid — all  that  could  be  af- 
forded— was  given.  Virginia  authorized  the  expe- 
dition suggested  by  Clark  against  the  British  posts 
in  the  northwest,  especially  in  Illinois  county,  and 
furnished  500  pounds  of  powder  and  a  small  sum  of 
money  to  purchase  supplies.  Clark  was  given  the 
commission  of  manor  and  empowered  to  recruit 
troops  for  the  expedition. 

On  May  27,  1778,  he  assembled  the  men  enlisted, 
numbering  about  150,  at  the  falls  of  the  Ohio.  This 
force  was  composed  of  four  companies  commanded 
by  captains  Joseph  Bowman,  Leonard  Helm,  Wil- 
liam Harrod  and  James  Montgomery.  Simon  Ken- 
ton  accompanied  the  expedition  as  hunter  and  scout. 

On  June  24  Clark,  placing  his  men  on  boats,  de- 
scended the  Ohio  to  a  point  on  the  Illinois  shore 
nearly  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  Eiver. 
Thence  he  marched  about  100  miles  through  prairie 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          251 

and  forest  uninhabited  to  Kaskaskia.  He  surprised 
and  took  that  village  and  the  fort  near  by  on  the 
night  of  July  4.  Two  days  later  Captain  Bowman, 
sent  with  a  small  detachment  to  Cahokia,  took  that 
place.  Vincennes  surrendered  August  1.  Three  of 
the  principal  English  strongholds,  hotbeds  of  In- 
dian hostility,  had  fallen.  Clark,  however,  was  un- 
able to  adequately  garrison  these  places,  and  rely- 
ing on  the  friendship  of  the  French  inhabitants 
only  one  man  besides  Captain  Helm  was  left  at  Vin- 
cennes. That  place  was  retaken  in  December  by 
Governor  Hamilton,  the  British  commandant  of 
Detroit.  Late  in  the  following  month  a  Colonel 
Vigo,  of  St.  Louis,  who  was  a  friend  of  the  Amer- 
ican cause,  brought  Clark  the  news.  He  also  in- 
formed him  that  Hamilton  had  only  eighty  men  but 
expected  to  be  strongly  reinforced  in  the  spring, 
when  he  intended  to  march  into  Kentucky  with  over- 
whelming forces.  Clark  had  every  reason  to  credit 
this  intelligence,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  act  upon 
it.  His  small  command  was  widely  dispersed,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  collect  some  supplies. 

It  is  difficult  in  this  day  of  easy,  rapid  communi- 
cation and  quick  transportation  to  understand  the 
difficulties  which  delayed  such  movements  then. 
But  on  February  7,  only  nine  days  after  he  had  been 
informed  of  its  capture,  Clark  was  on  his  way  to 
recapture  Vincennes.  Hamilton  believed  himself 
secure.  It  was  the  midwinter  season.  The  floods 
of  the  many  streams  had  converted  the  region  about 
Vincennes,  and  over  which  any  enemy  must  march, 
into  one  alternately  of  quagmires  and  ice  fields. 
But  he  was  matched  against  no  common  antagonist. 

Clark  mounted  upon  a  large  flat  boat  two  four- 
pounders,  manned  it  with  a  company  of  forty-five 
men  and  sent  it  up  the  Wabash  to  the  mouth  of  the 
White  Eiver  to  prevent  any  aid  coming  to  Hamilton 


252  THE  HISTOEY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

from  that  direction.  Two  companies  of  gallant 
French  allies,  raised  at  Cahokia  and  Kaskaskia  and 
added  to  his  Kentuckians,  made  the  force  under  his 
own  command  170  men. 

That  march  to  Vincennes  had  no  parallel,  even  in 
those  days  of  hardship,  for  extreme  privation  and 
suffering  cheerfully  undergone.  For  days  the  men 
waded  shoulder  deep  through  the  icy  waters,  and 
rested  at  night  on  any  little  hillock  which  rose  above 
the  miry  or  frozen  surface.  They  carried  no  ra- 
tions, game  was  scarce,  and  it  was  difficult  to  light 
fires  with  which  to  cook  the  scanty  food  procured. 
The  iron  fortitude  and  endurance  of  leader  and 
men  were  tested  to  the  utmost.  Clark  appeared 
before  Vincennes  on  February  24  and  immediately 
began  the  siege.  Hamilton  sought  to  parley,  but  his 
overtures  were  sternly  rejected  and  he  surrendered 
on  the  25th. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  result  of  these 
operations  was  to  perfectly  verify  Clark's  anticipa- 
tion. The  first  effect  was  to  inspire  the  settlers  with 
fresh  hope  and  courage,  and  to  furnish  a  new  stim- 
ulus to  immigration.  There  was,  also,  during  the 
remainder  of  the  year  and  until  the  summer  of  1780 
a  marked  diminution  in  the  frequency  of  the  Indian 
raids,  while  the  number  of  the  settlers  was  increas- 
ing. They  came  not  only  by  the  "wilderness  road" 
through  Cumberland  Gap,  but  down  the  Ohio.  Col- 
lins states  that  "no  less  than  three  hundred  large 
family  boats,  filled  with  immigrants,  arrived  at  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio"  in  the  spring  of  1780. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  when  hostilities 
were  actively  renewed  in  1780  the  Indians  were  less 
audacious  than  before  Clark  had  delivered  his  blow. 
He  continued  his  offensive-defensive  policy,  and  in 
May,  1779,  sent  Bowman  into  Ohio  to  attack  the 
Indian  towns. 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OP  VIRGINIA.          253 

Nevertheless,  in  June,  1780,  Colonel  Byrd  of  the 
English  army  with  600  Indians  and  Canadians  came 
down  the  Miami  Valley  and  the  Ohio  Eiver  and 
entered  Kentucky  by  the  Licking.  He  captured 
Ruddle's  and  Martin's  stations,  and  retreated  with- 
out further  demonstration.  The  following  month 
Clark  with  the  men  under  command  of  Logan  and 
Linn  made  a  sharp  retaliatory  campaign  into  Ohio, 
destroying  the  most  important  villages  of  the  Miami 
and  Scioto  valleys. 

The  settlers  suffered  severely  in  1782,  but  had 
grown  too  strong  to  feel  serious  apprehension. 
This  was  the  year  of  "Estill's  Defeat,"  when 
twenty-five  Wyandotte  braves  beat  an  equal  num- 
ber of  whites  in  fair  battle.  In  August  of  that  year 
nearly  600  Indians,  led  by  the  renegade  Simon 
Girty,  besieged  Bryan's  station  for  three  days.  On 
this  occasion  occurred  that  heroic  incident  of  the 
women  going  outside  of  the  fort  for  water  sorely 
needed,  although  they  knew  the  Indians  were  in 
ambuscade  near  the  spring  whence  it  must  be  ob- 
tained. The  garrison  repulsed  their  assailants  and 
they  retreated,  pursued  by  182  men  hastily  col- 
lected from  the  nearer  stations ;  but  turning  on  their 
pursuers  at  the  Blue  Licks,  August  19,  the  Indians 
defeated  them  with  heavy  loss.  Boone's  son  was 
killed  in  this  battle. 

Clark  had  been  appointed  brigadier-general  to 
command  all  of  the  Kentucky  militia.  Prompt  and 
indefatigable  he  instantly  began  preparations  for  a 
campaign  which  should  avenge  the  latest  disaster, 
and  teach  his  red  foes  a  lesson  they  would  remem- 
ber. Collecting  more  than  1,000  men  under  Floyd, 
Logan  and  other  excellent  subordinates,  he  again 
invaded  Ohio.  The  damage  inflicted  by  this  expe- 
dition and  the  withdrawal  of  English  aid  and  en- 
couragement following  the  negotiations  for  peace 


254  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

between  the  colonies  and  Great  Britain,  about  the 
same  date,  put  a  stop  to  Indian  incursions  into  Ken- 
tucky in  large  numbers ;  but  depredations  and  mur- 
ders by  small  parties  continued  for  some  years 
longer.  It  is  estimated  that  more  than  3,000  of  the 
settlers  were  victims  of  this  savage  warfare  in  the 
first  decade  of  Kentucky  history. 

In  1783  Kentucky  was  constituted  one  judicial 
district,  and  John  Floyd,  Samuel  McDowell  and 
George  Muter  were  appointed  judges.  The  first  ses- 
sion of  this  court  was  held  at  Harrodsburg  in  March 
of  that  year. 

Steps  to  Statehood. 

John  Filson,  the  first  historian  of  Kentucky,  esti- 
mated that  in  1784  the  population  was  30,000.  At 
any  rate  it  was  large  enough  to  justify  an  applica- 
tion to  Virginia  for  an  independent  state  govern- 
ment. 

Eeasons  similar  to  those  which  had  urged  the 
settlers  to  ask  that  a  separate  county  be  created  now 
induced  them  to  desire  that  Kentucky  should  be- 
come a  separate  commonwealth.  One  such  reason 
had  become  more  potent.  The  peace  with  Great 
Britain  had  not  caused  a  cessation  of  Indian  hostil- 
ity, and  the  Kentuckians  lacked  the  official  machin- 
ery necessary  to  furnish  means  for  their  proper 
defense. 

In  the  fall  of  1784  Col.  Benjamin  Logan  received 
information  which  induced  him  to  believe  that  the 
southern  tribes  of  the  Tennessee  valley  were  pre- 
paring for  an  invasion  of  Kentucky.  It  occurred 
to  him,  as  to  every  other  experienced  Indian  fighter, 
that  the  most  effectual  method  of  preventing  such 
an  incursion  was  to  anticipate  it  by  an  expedition 
directed  against  the  Indians  themselves. 

He  therefore  invited  a  number  of  the  most  public- 
spirited  citizens  to  meet  him  at  Danville,  that  they 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          255 

might  consult  and  adopt  measures  necessary  to  such 
an  undertaking.  But  it  immediately  became  appar- 
ent that  no  one  in  Kentucky  had  authority  to  order 
such  an  expedition,  to  call  the  militia  into  active 
service,  or  in  any  way  to  inaugurate  offensive  meas- 
ures. There  was  no  authority  even  to  provide  am- 
munition and  supplies  for  the  use  of  the  militia. 

Realizing  their  impotent  condition  and  the  dan- 
gers liable  to  result  from  it,  those  who  attended 
this  meeting  called  by  Logan  recommended  that  a 
convention  should  be  held  which  might  devise  some 
remedy.  It  was  to  consist  of  one  delegate  from  each 
military  district — or  militia  company — and  was 
called  to  meet  at  Danville  Dec.  27,  1784.  This  was 
the  first  step  in  the  tedious  and  protracted  process 
by  which  Kentucky  finally  became  separated  from 
Virginia  and  an  independent  state. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi  and  the  right  of  others  than  citizens  of 
Spain  to  deposit  produce  at  New  Orleans  for  ex- 
portation, matters  which  were  subsequently  of  ab- 
sorbing interest  to  Kentuckians,  were  considered  at 
this  date.  The  importance  of  such  concessions  were 
doubtless  realized  even  then,  and  the  failure  of  the 
general  government  to  obtain  them  afterwards  cre- 
ated intense  dissatisfaction.  The  subject  was  pub- 
licly discussed  at  Danville  as  early  as  1787,  and  in 
the  same  year  Guardoqui,  the  Spanish  minister  to 
the  United  States,  let  it  be  understood  that  he  had 
authority  to  grant  to  the  people  of  Kentucky  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and  all  privileges  of 
exportation,  if  they  would  declare  their  severance 
from  and  independence  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States.  But  there  is  no  evidence  that  this 
question  influenced  the  effort  for  statehood  in  1784. 

The  convention  of  Dec.  27,  1784,  resolved  "that 
many  inconveniences  under  which  they  labored 


256  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

might  be  remedied  by  the  legislature  of  Virginia, 
but  that  the  great  and  substantial  evils  to  which  they 
were  subjected  were  beyond  the  power  and  control  of 
the  government,  namely,  from  their  remote  and  de- 
tached situation,  and  could  never  be  remedied  until 
the  district  had  a  government  of  its  own. ' '  It  recom- 
mended that  delegates  should  be  elected  to  another 
convention  to  be  held  May  3, 1785. 

Accordingly,  a  second  convention  met  at  Dan- 
ville on  that  date  and  resolved:  " First — That  a 
petition  be  presented  to  the  Legislative  Assembly, 
praying  that  this  district  be  established  into  a  state 
separate  from  Virginia ;  second — That  another  con- 
vention of  representatives  be  elected  to  meet  at 
Danville  on  the  second  Monday  in  August,  to  take 
further  under  consideration  the  state  of  the  district ; 
third — That  this  convention  recommend  that  the 
election  of  deputies  for  the  proposed  assembly  be 
on  the  principles  of  equal  representation  on  the 
basis  of  population." 

This  latter  proposition  was  significant  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  representation  in  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses of  Virginia  had  always  been  apportioned 
more  on  the  basis  of  territory  than  of  population. 

The  necessity  for  this  third  convention  is  not  ap- 
parent, but  it  met  at  the  appointed  date  (Aug.  14, 
1785),  and  the  committee  of  the  whole  on  the  state  of 
the  district  offered  a  very  pertinent  report  and  reso- 
lutions, and  an  address  to  the  legislature  of  Virginia, 
embodying  the  views  of  the  convention,  all  of  which 
were  adopted. 

An  address  was  also  issued  "To  the  Inhabitants 
of  the  District  of  Kentucky,"  calling  their  atten- 
tion to  the  danger  of  Indian  invasion.  It  called  a 
fourth  convention  to  meet  in  September,  1786,  to 
complete  the  work  of  separation  and  frame  a  con- 
stitution for  the  new  state.  This  was  done  in  pur- 


KENTUCKY  A  PART  OF  VIRGINIA.          257 

suance  of  the  action  of  the  Virginia  legislature, 
approving  the  petition  for  separation  and  indicating 
the  date  when  the  terms  upon  which  it  would  be 
granted  should  be  considered  by  the  people  of  the 
district.  The  act  providing  for  the  separation 
passed  in  January,  1786,  made  it  contingent  on 
certain  conditions  relating  to  boundary,  the  pro- 
portion of  the  public  debt  to  be  assumed  by  Ken- 
tucky, that  private  interests  in  land  derived  from 
Virginia  should  be  determined  by  existing  laws,  and 
that  the  navigation  of  the  Ohio  should  be  free  to 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

But  the  legislature,  influenced  by  a  memorial  ad- 
dressed to  it  by  certain  members  of  this  fourth  con- 
vention, repealed  this  act  before  it  had  completed 
a  quorum,  and  its  subsequent  acceptance  was  con- 
sequently nugatory.  All  that  had  been  done  was 
but  so  much  time  and  labor  wasted,  and  a  fifth  con- 
vention was  called  to  do  the  work  again.  But  it  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  recite  in  detail  the  history  of 
this  effort  for  separate  state  government,  the  re- 
iterated and  long  profitless  procedure  and  vexatious 
delay  for  eight  expectant  years. 

Five  other  conventions,  ten  in  all,  were  held  be- 
fore the  work  was  consumated.  The  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  was  adopted  Sept.  17,  1787, 
although  not  ratified  until  June  26,  1788.  After  re- 
ceiving this  news  and  in  anticipation  of  ratification, 
the  petition  for  separation  addressed  to  Virginia 
by  each  subsequent  convention  making  application 
was  accompanied  by  one  to  Congress  asking  admis- 
sion into  the  Union.  Virginia  always  assenting:  to 
separation,  nevertheless  attached  conditions  which 
the  people  of  the  district  were  not  willing  to  accept. 

Congress  for  a  time  objected  and  interposed  de- 
lays. The  Hon.  John  Brown,  of  Danville,  who  had 
been  chosen  to  represent  the  district  of  Kentucky  as 


258  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

one  of  Virginia's  representatives  in  Congress,  thus 
explained  the  animus  and  action  of  that  body  in 
a  letter  to  Judge  Muter,  dated  June  10,  1788:  "The 
Eastern  States  would  not,  nor  do  I  think  they  ever 
will,  assent  to  the  admission  of  the  District  into  the 
Union,  as  an  independent  state,  unless  Vermont  or 
the  province  of  Maine  is  brought  forward  at  the 
same  time.  The  change  which  has  taken  place  in 
the  general  government  is  made  the  ostensible  ob- 
jection to  the  measure,  but  the  jealousy  of  the  grow- 
ing importance  of  the  Western  Country,  and  an  un- 
willingness to  add  a  vote  to  the  Southern  interest, 
are  the  real  causes  of  opposition." 

Finally  Virginia,  Dec.  18,  1789,  passed  an  act  au- 
thorizing the  separation  on  terms  with  which  the 
people  of  the  district  were  satisfied.  A  convention 
met  July  26,  1790,  accepted  the  conditions  of  the 
last  act,  fixed  June  1,  1792,  as  the  day  on  which 
Kentucky  should  become  a  separate  and  independ- 
ent state,  and  called  a  convention  for  April  2,  1792, 
to  frame  a  constitution  for  the  new  commonwealth. 
Congress  passed  an  act  Feb.  4, 1791,  admitting  Ken- 
tucky into  the  Union,  to  take  effect  June  1,  1792. 

The  tenth  convention,  composed  of  five  delegates 
from  each  of  the  nine  counties  of  the  district,  as- 
sembled on  the  date  appointed  and  made  and 
adopted  a  constitution,  thus  ending  the  long  travail. 

The  first  governor,  Isaac  Shelby,  was  a  soldier 
who  had  served  with  distinction  at  King's  Moun- 
tain and  Point  Pleasant,  a  record  which,  with  the 
Indian  troubles  still  pressing  and  unsettled,  of  it- 
self commended  him  to  his  people,  but  he  was  also 
a  man  of  sterling  worth  and  character.  The  first 
senators  elected  to  Congress  were  John  Brown  and 
John  Edwards. 

Collins  and  Smith,  in  their  respective  histories  of 
Kentucky,  -estimate  the  population  in  1790  to  have 


KENTUCKY  FBOM  1792  TO  1865.  259 

been  73,677,  and  Durrett  estimates  it  to  have  been 
100,000  in  1792.  But  in  addition  to  this  rapid 
growth  of  population,  the  state  was  already  devel- 
oping an  agricultural  capacity  which  was  a  fair 
augury  of  its  future  prosperity. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Allen,  Wm.  B.:  History  of  Kentucky  (1872);  Brad- 
ford, John:  Notes  on  Kentucky  (in  the  Kentucky  Gazette,  Lexington, 
1826-29);  Butler,  Mann:  History  of  the  Commomvealth  of  Kentucky 
(1834);  Collins,  Lewis:  Historical  Sketches  of  Kentucky  (1847);  Collins, 
Richard:  History  of  Kentucky  (1874);  Filson,  John:  The  Discovery,  Set- 
tlement and  Present  State  of  Kentucky  (1784);  Marshall,  Humphrey:  His- 
tory of  Kentucky  (1812,  enlarged  1824);  McAfee,  Robert  B.:  The  General 
and  Natural  History  of  Kentucky  (1804-1907);  McClung,  John  A.: 
SIcetcfies  of  Western  Adventure  (1832);  Rafinesque,  C.  S.:  Ancient  History 
or  Annals  of  Kentucky  (1824);  Shaler,  N.  S.:  Kentucky  as  a  Pioneer  State 
(in  American  Commonwealths,  1885);  Smith,  Z.  F.:  History  of  Kentucky 
(1886);  The  Filson  Club  Publications  (commencing  1884),  especially 
Durrett,  Reuben  T. :  Life  and  Times  of  John  Filson,  The  Centenary  of 
Kentucky 

BASIL  W.  DUKE, 

Member  Shiloh  National  Military  Park  Commission:  author 
The  History  of  Morgan'*  Cavalry. 


CHAPTBB  II. 
KENTUCKY  FEOM  1792  TO  1865. 

Steps  to  Statehood. 

The  peculiar  circumstances  characterizing  the 
erection  of  Kentucky  into  one  of  the  states  of  the 
Federal  Union  render  it  necessary  to  give  a  brief 
review  of  its  settlement  before  entering  upon  its 
history  as  a  separate  commonwealth. 

The  original  thirteen  colonies  were  organized 
before  anything  definite  was  known  of  the  territory 
now  embraced  within  its  limits  or  of  that  extending 
westward  to  the  Pacific.  It  was  the  hunting  ground 
of  various  hostile  tribes  of  Indians,  and  it  was  not 


260  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

until  Dr.  Thomas  Walker,  in  1750,  and  Col.  Chris- 
topher Gist,  in  1751,  made  their  explorations  that 
there  existed  any  definite  knowledge  of  its  topog- 
raphy or  other  features  which  later  proved  so  allur- 
ing to  the  immigrant  from  the  east.  Even  then, 
it  was  not  until  1769  that  it  was  first  visited  by 
Daniel  Boone,  and  no  permanent  habitation  was 
erected  until  1774  when  James  Harrod  and  a  few 
other  Virginians  made  a  settlement  at  what  is  now 
Harrodsburg  in  the  central  portion  of  the  state.  A 
year  later  the  fort  at  Boonesborough,  not  far  distant, 
was  built  and  became  the  nucleus  of  other  similar 
defensive  stations,  by  means  of  which  tenure  of  the 
territory  was  maintained  against  the  combined  ef- 
forts of  the  Indians  and  the  British. 

The  settlement  of  Kentucky  is  invested  with  an 
interest  not  merely  from  its  local  bearing  and  its 
rapid  growth  from  an  uninhabited  wilderness  to  a 
new  member  of  the  Eepublic,  but  from  its  influence 
in  promoting  the  settlement  of  the  west  and  in  win- 
ning to  the  Federal  control  the  vast  territorial  area 
now  comprising  the  states  of  Ohio,  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  that  part  of  Minnesota 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  through  the  genius  of 
George  Rogers  Clark,  one  of  its  early  pioneers. 
The  achievement  of  this  great  leader  who,  with  a 
mere  handful  of  backwoodsmen,  while  not  yet  thirty 
years  of  age,  wrested  this  territory  from  the  British 
in  1779,  cannot  be  overestimated  in  its  influence 
upon  the  rapid  settlement  of  the  West  and  the 
cause  of  American  independence.  Nor  was  the  civic 
growth  of  Kentucky  less  remarkable  in  its  other- 
wise rapid  development.  The  first  movement  look- 
ing to  the  establishment  of  local  self-government 
was  the  meeting  of  the  House  of  Delegates  or  Rep- 
resentatives of  the  Colony  of  Transylvania  at 
Boonesborough  on  May  23,  1775,  composed  of  dele- 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  261 

gates  from  the  following  settlements:  Boonesbor- 
ongh,  Harrodsburg,  Boiling  Springs  and  St. 
Asaphs,  all  comprised  in  a  limited  territorial  area. 
The  list  of  delegates  included  the  names  of  many 
who  afterwards  bore  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  state.  The  meeting  was  called  by  Rich- 
ard Henderson,  president  of  the  Transylvania  Com- 
pany composed  of  North  Carolinians,  who  had,  on 
March  17  previous,  purchased  from  the  Cherokee 
Indians,  by  treaty  held  at  Watauga,  in  East  Ten- 
nessee, that  part  of  Kentucky  south  of  the  Ken- 
tucky River.  All  the  formalities  of  a  parliament 
were  observed,  including  an  opening  address  from 
Colonel  Henderson  and  a  formal  response  from 
Thomas  Slaughter,  the  presiding  officer.  Various 
acts  were  passed,  such  as  establishing  courts,  regu- 
lating the  militia,  to  prevent  profane  swearing  and 
Sabbath  breaking,  and  for  preserving  the  game  and 
improving  the  breed  of  horses.  But  the  session  was 
brief,  as  later  proved  the  life  of  the  government 
sought  to  be  organized.  Virginia  claimed  priority 
of  title  to  the  land  by  virtue  of  the  treaty  of  Fort 
Stanwix,  New  York,  Nov.  5,  1768,  by  which  the 
Cherokees  had  sold  to  that  colony  all  their  lands  in 
Kentucky  and  declared  the  Henderson  purchase 
void.  North  Carolina  also  repudiated  the  claim, 
but  both  commonwealths,  in  view  of  the  service 
rendered  by  the  Henderson  Company  in  promoting 
the  settlement  of  the  west,  donated  to  it  a  tract  of 
200,000  acres  of  land.  That  of  Virginia  was  located 
at  the  mouth  of  Green  River,  Kentucky,  comprising 
in  part  the  present  county  of  Henderson,  while 
North  Carolina  contributed  an  equal  quantity  of 
rich  lands  in  Powell's  Valley  at  the  base  of  the 
Cumberland  Mountains  in  East  Tennessee. 

The  impetus  given  to  the  settlement  of  Kentucky 
by  the  incoming  of  the  Henderson  Company  was 


262  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

in  no  measure  checked  by  its  dissolution,  but  with 
the  foothold  gained  by  the  establishment  of  the 
nucleus  of  stations  and  forts,  not  far  distant  from 
Boonesborough,  was  maintained  by  the  bravery  of 
the  pioneers  who  successfully  resisted  the  efforts  of 
the  Indians  and  their  British  allies  to  prevent  their 
occupation  of  the  country.  The  story  of  the  heroic 
struggle  of  the  pioneers  of  Kentucky  during  the 
American  Eevolution  and  for  more  than  a  decade 
after  its  close  is  one  of  unparalleled  courage  and 
fortitude,  involving,  as  it  did,  not  only  the  defense 
of  their  immediate  firesides  but  the  conquest  of  the 
northwest  from  the  British  and  the  protection  of 
the  pioneers  thereto  from  Indian  and  Canadian 
aggression. 

Virginia,  assuming  jurisdiction  over  the  terri- 
tory embraced  in  Kentucky  was  not  slow  in  organ- 
izing civil  government  therein.  From  the  start  it 
was  held  as  part  of  Fincastle  county,  but  on  Dec.  6, 
1776,  the  legislature  of  Virginia  established  the 
county  of  Kentucky,  and  in  the  following  April 
burgesses  were  chosen  to  represent  it,  the  first 
court  being  established  at  Harrodsburg  in  Sep- 
tember of  that  year.  On  Nov.  1,  1780,  the  county 
of  Kentucky  was  divided  into  three  counties,  Jef- 
ferson, Lincoln  and  Fayette,  each  with  a  colonel, 
lieutenant-colonel  and  surveyor;  and  thence  every 
few  years  afterwards  additional  counties  were  or- 
ganized, the  civil  government  gradually  supplanting 
the  more  primitive  methods.  Meantime  the  tide  of 
immigration,  chiefly  from  Virginia,  was  steadily 
increasing,  embracing  many  men  of  prominence  in 
their  former  homes  and  others  who  subsequently 
achieved  distinction  in  their  new  one.  The  roll 
embraces  too  many  of  merit  to  admit  of  singling  out 
a  few  for  illustration.  Upon  these  brave  pioneers 
was  imposed  the  task,  not  only  of  forming  a  civil 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  263 

government,  but  of  protecting  the  lives  of  their 
families  from  the  savage  Indian  tribes  of  the  north- 
west, stimulated  in  their  desire  to  recover  posses' 
sion  of  their  hunting  grounds  by  the  British  who, 
utilizing  them  as  part  of  their  military  force  in  the 
colonial  war,  added  to  their  barbarities  by  a 
bounty  for  the  scalps  of  the  settlers.  It  was  not 
until  1783  that  the  Indians  were  sufficiently  sub- 
dued to  exempt  the  territory  of  Kentucky  from 
organized  invasion,  while,  for  more  than  a  decade 
later,  small  predatory  bodies  made  life  unsafe  in 
every  part  of  the  territory  occupied.  The  close  of 
the  Eevolutionary  War  brought  but  little  relief  to 
the  pioneers.  The  British,  in  violation  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  which  secured  independence  of  the  colonies, 
refused  to  give  up  the  forts  of  the  northwest  terri- 
tory until  1795,  and  it  was  not  until  the  victory  of 
Wayne  at  Fallen  Timbers,  in  1794,  followed  by  the 
treaty  of  peace  with  the  Northwest  Indians  at 
Greenville,  Ohio,  Aug.  3,  1795,  that  Kentucky  was 
relieved  of  both  defensive  and  aggressive  meas- 
ures against  the  savages  for  the  sanctity  of  their 
homes. 

Notwithstanding  these  adverse  conditions,  an 
early  sentiment  was  manifested  by  the  pioneers  in 
favor  of  the  organization  of  the  territory  as  an  in- 
dependent colony. 

In  1784  the  first  convention  looking  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  separate  government  was  held  at 
Danville  with  ten  successive  ones,  at  intervals,  un- 
til its  final  admission  as  a  state  in  1792.  Thus 
it  will  be  seen  that  within  nine  years  after  the  erec- 
tion of  the  fort  at  Boonesborough  the  pioneers  of 
Kentucky  began  an  organized  movement  for  the 
erection  of  the  territory  into  a  separate  government 
and  eight  years  later  perfected  its  organization  as 
a  state,  and  it  was  admitted  as  the  fifteenth  member 


264  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

of  the  Federal  Union  with  a  census  population  of 
73,677. 

The  Constitutional  History  of  Kentucky. 

The  constitutional  history  of  Kentucky  from  its 
admission  into  the  Union  as  a  state  until  the  War 
of  Secession,  and  to  the  present  date,  is  easy  of 
comprehension,  having  been  simply  an  evolution  of 
the  conditions  of  its  original  organization  as  a  state 
to  those  which  now  prevail.  The  first  constitution 
which  went  into  effect  June  1,  1792,  followed  the 
lines  of  governmental  principles  and  policies  of  the 
parent  commonwealth.  It  required,  however,  but  a 
very  brief  period  of  experience  to  demonstrate  that, 
in  many  of  its  provisions,  it  fell  short  of  putting  into 
practical  operation  the  advanced  principles  of  con- 
stitutional liberty  which  had  been  won  by  the  col- 
onies by  their  successful  struggle  during  the  Revolu- 
tion. 

The  act  of  the  Virginia  legislature  which  finally 
led  to  the  erection  of  Kentucky  as  a  separate  state 
is  what  is  known  in  Kentucky  as  the  "Compact 
with  Virginia,"  entitled  "An  act  concerning  the 
erection  of  the  District  of  Kentucky  into  an  inde- 
pendent state,  approved  Dec.  18,  1789."  This  pro- 
vided that  in  the  month  of  May,  1790,  on  the  re- 
spective court  days  of  the  several  counties,  then 
numbering  nine,  viz.:  Jefferson,  Nelson,  Mercer, 
Lincoln,  Madison,  Fayette,  Woodford,  Bourbon  and 
Mason,  there  should  be  elected  from  each  county 
five  representatives  to  a  convention  to  be  held  in 
Danville  July  26,  1790,  "to  consider  and  determine 
whether  it  be  expedient  for  and  the  will  of  the  good 
people  of  the  said  district  that  the  same  be  erected 
into  an  independent  state,"  upon  terms  later  pre- 
scribed as  to  boundary,  land  grants  and  other  de- 
tails. The  act  further  provided  that  if  the  conven- 
tion should  approve  the  erection  of  the  district  into 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  265 

an  independent  state,  on  the  terms  prescribed,  it 
should  fix  a  day  after  the  1st  of  November,  1791, 
on  which  the  authority  of  Virginia  should  cease  and 
the  compact  become  mutually  binding  upon  the 
parties,  and  unalterable  by  either  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  other.  This  was  coupled  with  a  proviso 
that  prior  to  the  1st  of  November,  1791,  the  Gen- 
eral Government  of  the  United  States  should  assent 
to  the  erection  of  the  said  district  into  a  separate 
state,  releasing  Virginia  from  all  obligations  aris- 
ing from  the  said  district,  as  being  a  part  thereof, 
and  agree  that  the  proposed  state  should,  immedi- 
ately after  the  day  fixed  posterior  to  the  1st  of 
November,  1791,  or  at  some  convenient  future  day, 
be  admitted  into  the  Federal  Union. 

This  was  the  third  act  of  Virginia  consenting  to 
the  separation  of  Kentucky,  the  first  having  been 
in  January,  1786,  and  the  second  in  the  following 
October,  but  it  met  with  no  favorable  response  from 
the  Federative  Congress.  Finally  that  body  having 
previously  provided  for  the  admission  of  Vermont 
as  a  state  on  March  4,  1792,  passed  an  act  on  the 
4th  day  of  February,  1791,  to  admit  Kentucky  into 
the  Union  on  the  first  day  of  June,  1792. 

The  First  Constitution. 

In  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  this  act  the 
first  constitution  of  Kentucky  was  formed  by  a  con- 
vention which  met  for  that  purpose  at  Danville, 
April  13,  1792,  being  the  tenth  convention  which 
had  been  held  looking  to  its  establishment  as  a  sepa- 
rate commonwealth  since  1784.  By  its  provisions 
it  was  to  become  operative  as  provided  by  the  fore- 
going act  of  Congress,  June  1,  1792.  There  were, 
at  that  time,  nine  counties,  as  before  enumerated, 
the  present  number  being  120.  The  salient  features 
of  this  organic  law  were:  first,  universal  suffrage, 


266  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

"all  free  male  citizens  of  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years  being  entitled  to  vote  who  had  resided  in 
the  state  two  years,  and  hi  the  county  in  which  they 
offered  to  vote  one  year  next  before  the  election"— 
the  first  instance  in  which  the  principle  of  unlimited 
suffrage,  now  of  quite  universal  recognition  in 
America,  was  put  into  practice.  Members  of  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives  were  elected  by  the  direct 
vote  of  the  people,  but  the  governor  and  senators 
were  chosen  by  electors  equal  to  the  number  of  rep- 
resentatives chosen  by  the  people. 

The  first  General  Assembly  met  at  Lexington  on 
June  4,  1792,  and  on  the  6th  Isaac  Shelby,  who  with 
his  father,  Gen.  Evan  Shelby,  a  native  of  Wales, 
had  borne  a  prominent  part  in  the  Revolutionary 
and  Indian  wars,  having  been  previously  elected 
governor,  delivered  his  first  message  orally,  as  was 
the  custom  in  England  and  America  at  that  day. 
The  first  act  passed  was  one  establishing  an  audi- 
tor's office  and  the  second  one  creating  the  county 
of  Washington  from  a  portion  of  the  county  of 
Nelson.  Thirty-seven  acts  in  all  were  passed  at  this 
session,  among  them  two  for  the  establishment  of 
Shelby  and  Logan  counties,  the  former  being  taken 
from  Jefferson  and  the  latter  from  Lincoln.  The 
final  act  of  the  session  was  passed  June  29,  1792. 
The  second,  an  adjourned  session,  was  held  at  Lex- 
ington Nov.  15,  1792,  the  last  act  of  which,  passed 
Dec.  22,  1792,  provided  that  the  next  session  should 
be  held  at  Frankfort,  which  had  been  fixed  by  a 
commission  as  the  capital  of  the  state  on  Nov.  1, 
1793,  at  the  house  of  Andrew  Holmes.  This  was 
known  later  as  the  Love  house,  a  large  double  frame 
dwelling  which  remained  an  object  of  historic  inter- 
est until  1870,  when  it  was  torn  down  to  give  place 
to  a  modern  residence.  Since  then  Frankfort  has 
continued  to  be  the  capital,  although  for  more  than 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  267 

half  a  century  strenuous  efforts  were  made,  at  in- 
tervals, to  remove  the  seat  of  government  to  Lex- 
ington or  Louisville.  Latterly  such  efforts  have 
been  discontinued,  and  a  new  capitol,  costing  about 
$1,500,000,  is  nearing  completion,  insuring  Frank- 
fort's continuance  as  the  seat  of  government  in- 
definitely. The  present  State  House,  soon  to  be 
vacated,  a  classic  stone  edifice  of  the  Parthenon 
order  of  architecture,  the  sixth  in  which  the  legisla- 
ture has  held  its  meetings,  was  completed  in  1829, 
and  in  it  has  been  held  all  the  legislative  meetings 
since,  except  in  the  autumn  of  1862  when  a  session 
was  adjourned  to  Louisville  in  consequence  of  the 
invasion  of  Kentucky  by  a  Confederate  army  under 
General  Bragg,  which  was,  for  a  time,  in  possession 
of  the  capital. 

The  Second  Constitution. 

It  required  but  a  brief  period  after  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  new  government  and  the  practical  exer- 
cise of  its  constitutional  provisions  to  develop  a 
very  general  objection  to  some  of  them.  While  that 
relating  to  unlimited  suffrage,  in  the  sphere  pro- 
vided, was  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  individual 
cooperation  which  has  enabled  the  pioneers  to  win 
their  victory  over  the  opposing  savages  and  the 
physical  obstacles  encountered  in  the  planting  of 
civilization  in  a  wilderness,  the  restriction  of  suf- 
frage in  the  choice  of  the  executive,  the  senate  and 
the  judiciary,  by  electors  instead  of  by  the  direct 
vote  of  the  people,  developed  an  early  opposition. 
In  addition  to  these  features  was  a  provision  which 
gave  to  the  Supreme  Court  original  and  final  juris- 
diction in  all  land  cases,  which  in  its  practical  oper- 
ation led  to  very  general  objection.  It  was  not  long, 
therefore,  before  there  was  a  strong  sentiment  in 
favor  of  another  constitutional  convention  to  cor- 
rect these  objectionable  features.  Several  attempts 


268  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

were  made  towards  attaining  this  end,  but  it  was  not 
until  1798  that  the  requisite  two-thirds  majority  of 
both  houses  in  the  legislature  was  obtained  provid- 
ing for  it,  and  on  July  22,  1799,  the  second  constitu- 
tional convention  met  at  Frankfort.  The  new  con- 
stitution was  adopted  August  17.  Its  provisions 
remedied  the  principal  objections  to  the  first.  The 
governor  and  senators  were  made  eligible  by  the 
direct  vote  of  the  people.  The  jurisdiction  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  was  limited  to  cases  of  appeal 
from  inferior  courts,  and  while  judges  of  both  were 
still  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor,  for  reasonable 
cause,  not  sufficient  for  impeachment,  they  were 
made  removable  by  him  upon  the  address  of  two- 
thirds  of  each  House  of  the  General  Assembly.  The 
governor,  upon  whose  reelection  there  was  no  re- 
striction in  the  first  constitution,  was  made  ineli- 
gible for  the  succeeding  seven  years  after  the  time 
of  his  election.  The  office  of  lieutenant-governor, 
for  which  there  was  no  provision  in  the  first  con- 
vention, was  created  by  the  second,  with  the  same 
qualifications  as  the  governor.  The  new  constitu- 
tion became  operative  June  1,  1800.  James  Gar- 
rard,  who  had  been  elected  governor  in  1796,  as  suc- 
cessor to  Governor  Shelby  by  a  bare  majority  over 
Benjamin  Logan,  was  again  elected  in  1800,  the  only 
instance  of  a  governor  of  Kentucky  having  suc- 
ceeded himself  by  consecutive  elections.  Governor 
Shelby  was  again  reflected  governor  in  1812,  since 
which  time  no  governor  has  served  two  full  terms. 

The  Third  and  Fourth  Constitutions. 

The  third  constitution  of  Kentucky  was  adopted 
by  a  convention  which  met  at  Frankfort  Oct.  1, 1849, 
a  half  century  after  the  adoption  of  the  second  one, 
and  it  bears  date  June  11,  1850.  The  salient  fea- 
tures in  which  it  differed  from  the  previous  one 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1790  TO  1865.  269 

consisted,  first,  in  making  all  officers,  state  and 
county,  including  the  judiciary,  elective,  and  incor- 
porating the  system  of  common  school  education  as 
a  constitutional,  instead  of  legislative,  subject,  and 
providing  for  the  election  of  a  superintendent  of 
public  instruction,  provisions,  the  necessity  of 
which  had  long  been  felt.  In  the  matter  of  con- 
tracting debts  the  legislature  was  limited  to 
$500,000,  except  "to  repel  invasion,  suppress  insur- 
rection, or,  if  hostilities  are  threatened,  to  provide 
for  the  public  defense,"  coupled  with  a  provision 
that  the  General  Assembly  should  have  no  power  to 
pass  any  act  or  resolution  for  the  appropriation  of 
any  money,  or  the  creation  of  any  debt  exceeding  the 
sum  of  $100  unless  the  same,  on  its  final  passage, 
should  be  voted  for  by  a  majority  of  all  the  members 
elected  to  each  branch  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and  requiring  the  yeas  and  nays  to  be  entered  upon 
the  journal.  These  were  very  salutary  provisions, 
prohibiting  such  large  expenditures  as  had  been 
made  in  railroad  construction,  slack  water  naviga- 
tion and  the  like.  The  granting  of  divorces,  chang- 
ing of  names  of  individuals  and  permission  for  the 
sale  of  estates  of  infants  or  persons  under  legal 
disability  were  also  taken  from  the  legislature  and 
relegated  to  the  courts  of  justice. 

The  fourth  constitution  was  adopted  in  conven- 
tion at  Frankfort  Sept.  28,  1891,  after  an  interval 
of  forty-one  years  since  the  adoption  of  the  preced- 
ing one.  Its  salient  feature  is  the  recognition  in 
the  organic  law  of  the  changes  effected  by  the  war 
in  regard  to  the  negro  and  previously  observed  by 
the  legislature.  In  all  his  legal  rights  he  is  placed 
on  an  equality  with  the  white,  with  no  restriction 
as  to  suffrage,  testimony  or  participation  in  the 
benefits  of  the  common  school  fund,  except  as  to 
the  latter,  separate  schools  are  provided  for  the  two 


270  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

races.  The  most  notable  change  occurs  in  the  man- 
ner of  voting.  Under  previous  constitutions  the 
viva  voce  system  was  the  method  prescribed  for  all 
elections.  The  new  constitution  inaugurated  the 
Australian  ballot.  In  some  respects  the  change  has 
been  salutary  as  protecting,  by  its  secret  feature, 
the  independence  of  the  voter,  but  the  system  has 
shown  defects  in  its  cumbersome  machinery  and  has 
not  as  fully  eliminated  the  matter  of  suffrage  from 
fraudulent  manipulation  as  was  hoped.  Another 
feature  of  the  new  instrument  is  that  while  it  re- 
stricts the  legislature  in  regard  to  many  subjects 
hitherto  under  its  control,  it  has  embodied  in  the 
organic  law  a  large  mass  not  limited  to  principles 
prescribing  the  bounds  of  legislation,  but  having 
more  the  semblance  of  a  fixed  code  of  legislation 
repealable  or  amendable  only  by  another  constitu- 
tional convention. 

The  Eesolutions  of  '98. 

The  success  of  the  second  constitutional  conven- 
tion in  meeting  the  political  views  of  the  people  was 
shown  by  the  fact  that  a  full  half  century  elapsed 
before  there  was  a  revision  of  the  fundamental  law 
of  the  state.  There  was  a  concurrence  in  the  adop- 
tion of  that  instrument  with  the  political  revolution 
in  national  politics  by  which  the  Federal  party, 
which  had  for  three  terms  controlled  the  presidency 
and  dominated  the  political  policies  of  the  period, 
suffered  defeat  in  the  election  of  Jefferson  over 
John  Adams  in  1800,  and  the  Democratic  party 
began  its  long  career  under  the  leadership  of  the 
author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  In  that 
memorable  contest  Kentucky  played  a  conspicuous 
part  in  the  adoption,  by  the  legislature  in  November, 
1798,  of  what  are  known  as  the  Kentucky  Eesolu- 
tions of  '98.  They  were  introduced  and  strongly, 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  271 

advocated  by  John  Breckinridge,  a  Virginian  who 
had  moved  to  Kentucky  in  1793,  and  taken  a  high 
position  at  the  bar — the  grandfather  of  Vice-Presi- 
dent John  C.  Breckinridge,  United  States  Senator, 
1801-05,  attorney-general  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  Cab- 
inet, 1805-06.  During  the  months  of  June  and  July 
previous  to  the  introduction  of  these  resolutions 
there  had  been  passed  by  Congress  the  famous  Alien 
and  Sedition  acts,  the  first  empowering  the  Presi- 
dent to  banish  any  foreigner  who  should  speak 
abusively  of  him  or  the  Congress,  and  the  second 
prescribing,  as  a  penalty,  fine  and  imprisonment 
upon  any  citizen  who  should  speak  severely  against 
either.  It  was  under  the  latter  law  that  Matthew 
Lyon,  then  a  member  of  Congress  from  Vermont 
and  later  from  Kentucky,  was,  in  October,  1798, 
expelled  from  Congress,  fined  $1,000  and  sentenced 
to  jail  for  four  months  for  having  severely  criti- 
cized President  Adams  in  a  newspaper  published 
by  him.  This  aroused  the  people  to  a  sense  of  the 
unconstitutionality  of  these  acts,  and  Mr.  Jefferson 
took  active  measures  in  opposition  to  them.  In  the 
autumn  of  that  year  a  conference  was  held  at  Monti- 
cello  at  which  were  present  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr. 
Breckinridge,  W.  C.  Nicholas,  of  Virginia,  and,  per- 
haps, Mr.  Madison.  As  a  result,  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
requested  to  draw  resolutions  condemnatory  of  these 
acts  as  unconstitutional,  to  be  presented  by  Mr. 
Breckinridge  to  the  Kentucky  legislature.  This  was 
done,  but  Mr.  Breckinridge,  exercising  a  conceded 
right,  made  sundry  alterations,  particularly  in 
eliminating  the  nullification  feature  from  the  origi- 
nal and  justly  entitling  him  to  the  credit  of  author- 
ship. That  they  were  ably  presented  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  they  passed  the  House  with  but  one 
dissenting  vote  and  the  Senate  unanimously. 
Much  misrepresentation  and  misconception  of 


272  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

these  resolutions  have  existed  in  the  general  charge 
and  belief  that  they  favored  the  doctrine  of  nullifica- 
tion or  implied  a  purpose  of  resistance  to  Federal 
authority.  A  just  view  will  ascribe  to  them  but  a 
purpose  to  enter  a  solemn  protest  against  the  exer- 
cise of  the  power  sought  to  be  conferred  upon  the 
Federal  executive,  and  the  use  of  moral  rather  than 
revolutionary  means  to  effect  a  remedy.  That  this 
was  done  is  sufficiently  attested  by  history.  The 
Federal  party  had  administered  the  government  for 
twelve  years  under  a  loose  construction  of  the  con- 
stitution during  the  last  presidential  term,  and  the 
introduction  of  these  resolutions  proved  to  be  the 
basis  of  the  organization  of  the  Democratic  party, 
the  election  of  Jefferson  and  all  succeeding  presi- 
dents, except  three,  for  sixty  years. 

The  School  System. 

For  some  years  prior  to  the  formation  of  the 
third  constitution  it  had  become  evident  that  a  revi- 
sion of  the  existing  one  was  necessary  to  meet  the 
growing  wants  of  the  increased  population,  and  the 
more  progressive  ideas  in  regard  to  the  administra- 
tion of  public  interests.  There  was,  in  that  instru- 
ment, no  provision  for  a  public  school  system  and 
many  restrictions  upon  the  power  of  the  people  in 
various  respects  in  which  other  states  had  demon- 
strated the  wisdom  of  better  methods.  While  the 
state  had  early  enjoyed  the  foundation  of  univer- 
sities, colleges  and  seminaries  for  higher  education 
by  the  various  religious  sects,  or  through  individual 
promotion,  there  was  no  adequate  provision  for  the 
education  of  the  young  beyond  the  primary  or  other 
schools  with  a  fee  for  tuition.  The  legislature  had 
at  various  times,  from  an  early  period,  donated 
lands  for  the  benefit  of  seminaries  and  other  educa- 
tional institutions,  and  in  1838  had  enacted  a  law 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  273 

for  the  establishment  of  a  general  system  of  com- 
mon schools  in  Kentucky,  and  Congress  had  two 
years  previously  apportioned  about  $15,000,000  of 
surplus  money  in  the  treasury  to  several  states  in 
the  form  of  a  loan,  of  which  Kentucky's  share  was 
$1,433,757,  the  greater  part  of  which  became  and 
remains  a  part  of  the  bonded  assets  of  our  public 
system.  But  notwithstanding  a  commendable  zeal 
shown  by  those  in  charge  of  the  public  school  sys- 
tem in  its  crude  condition,  there  was  but  little 
progress  made  towards  its  efficient  organization 
until  it  became  a  part  of  the  organic  law  by  the  ac- 
tion of  the  convention  which  framed  the  third  con- 
stitution. In  addition  to  a  provision  that  a  superin- 
tendent of  public  instruction  should  be  elected  by 
the  people  at  the  same  time  with  the  governor  and 
for  the  same  term  of  years,  the  organization  of  the 
school  system,  by  constitutional  provision,  instead 
of  by  mere  legislative  act  subject  to  repeal  or  change 
at  each  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly,  gave  an 
impetus  to  the  cause  of  education  which  prospered 
notwithstanding  the  injurious  effects  of  the  War  of 
Secession  and  the  great  drawback  to  its  efficiency 
in  the  mountain  region  of  the  state  from  its  sparse 
population  and  inadequate  roads.  For  a  long  time 
the  percentage  of  taxation  for  school  purposes  was 
but  two  cents  on  the  hundred  dollars,  but  it  has  from 
time  to  time  been  raised  until  it  is  now,  by  constitu- 
tional provision,  at  the  rate  of  twenty-two  cents 
with  the  power  of  additional  taxation  in  cities  or 
other  school  districts  which,  by  popular  vote,  may 
so  decide.  There  has  been  a  steady  advance  in  the 
improvement  of  the  system  since  the  war,  the  negro 
children  sharing  equally  with  the  whites  in  the 
nrivileges  for  education,  the  only  distinction  made 
being  that  which  provides  separate  schools  for  the 
two  races.  There  are  state  normal  schools  for  each 

Vol.  1—18. 


274  THE  HISTOEY  OP  KENTUCKY. 

race,  that  for  the  negroes  is  located  at  Frankfort  and 
has  been  in  successful  operation  for  nearly  a  score 
of  years.  The  two  schools  for  whites  have  but  re- 
cently been  organized,  the  eastern  at  Richmond  and 
the  western  at  Bowling  Green,  supplanting  one 
formerly  attached  to  the  State  University  at  Lex- 
ington. At  the  1908  session  of  the  legislature  the 
following  appropriations  were  made  for  these  in- 
stitutions in  addition  to  the  existing  provisions: 
$200,000  for  the  State  University;  $150,000  each  for 
eastern  and  western  Normal  Schools,  and  $40,000 
for  the  Colored  Normal  School.  For  the  general 
operation  of  the  common  school  system  provision 
is  made  for  primary,  graded,  high  schools,  normal 
schools  and  universities.  In  the  larger  towns  and 
cities,  gratifying  evidence  of  its  success  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  excellence  of  the  buildings,  the  esprit  de  corps 
of  the  pupils  and  the  steady  advance  in  all  the  de- 
partments of  the  system.  In  the  rural  districts 
which,  from  the  different  conditions,  cannot  give 
such  visual  demonstrations,  there  is  a  proportionate 
advance  in  the  line  of  educational  improvement. 
The  legislature  of  1908  enacted  a  law  placing  the 
schools  outside  of  cities  in  charge  of  a  board  of  edu- 
cation in  each  county  which  in  other  states  has 
proved  very  effective  in  promoting  the  interests  of 
education. 

In  addition  to  the  provision  made  for  the  educa- 
tion of  children  under  the  common  school  system, 
Kentucky  maintains  state  schools  for  the  feeble- 
minded, for  the  blind  and  for  the  deaf  and  dumb, 
which  have  been  long  in  successful  operation. 

Early  Military  History  of  Kentucky. 

The  military  history  of  Kentucky  dates  from  its 
earliest  settlement.  In  its  primitive  days  every 
man  who  bore  a  rifle  or  a  hunting  knife  was  a  sol- 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  275 

dier  belonging  to  the  army  of  pioneers,  who  felled 
the  trees  or  plowed  the  ground,  with  his  weapon 
ready  at  hand  to  repel  the  red-skinned  adverse 
claimant.  He  was  an  unpaid  soldier  and  was,  there- 
fore, not  enrolled,  but  it  was  such  as  he  who  ral- 
lied to  the  call  of  Clark  and  Logan  whenever  the 
peace  of  the  stations  was  threatened  or  the  punish- 
ment of  the  Indian  or  his  British  ally  was  demanded 
in  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio.  The  full  roll  of 
these  men  can  never  be  found.  They  were  too  often 
the  victims  of  the  scalping  knife,  the  arrow  or  the 
rifle,  the  gauntlet  or  the  stake — the  unknown  heroes 
who  in  every  contest  of  civilization  against  barbar- 
ism, or  right  against  wrong,  fill  unmarked  graves 
and  have  only  an  anonymous  fame. 

Virginia,  embarrassed  with  her  own  troubles  in 
resisting  Indian  or  foreign  aggression,  was  slow  to 
recognize  the  value  of  these  defenders  of  her  west- 
ern possessions,  who  in  winning  homes  for  them- 
selves were  at  the  same  time  zealously  guarding 
against  the  encroachment  of  rival  claimants  as 
well  as  the  Indians.  It  was  not  until  George  Kogers 
Clark,  as  first  delegate  from  a  convention  of  the 
Harrodsburg  convention  of  June  20,  1776,  made  his 
appeal  to  the  Virginia  Convention  at  Williamsburg 
for  aid,  with  the  epigrammatic  plea  that  "a  country 
which  was  not  worth  defending  was  not  worth 
claiming,"  that  he  received  an  order  for  five  hun- 
dred pounds  of  powder  upon  the  arsenal  at  Pitts- 
burg  and  secured  an  act  of  Dec.  6, 1776,  establishing 
Kentucky  as  a  county  of  Virginia.  In  due  time, 
after  many  hardships,  the  powder  arrived  safely  at 
Harrodsburg  and  was  used  by  the  first  militia  of 
Kentucky  under  George  Rogers  Clark,  then  but 
twenty-four,  commissioned  as  major.  From  this 
initiative  dates  the  first  military  organization  in 
Kentucky,  resulting  not  only  in  the  successful  de- 


276  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

fense  of  the  primitive  forts,  but  in  the  conquest  of 
the  British  possessions  between  the  Ohio  and  the 
lakes  which  was  in  1784  transferred,  as  a  free  dona- 
tion, to  the  Federal  government.  Afterwards, 
when  to  the  defense  of  the  settlements  south  of  the 
Ohio  was  added  the  arduous  duty  of  repelling  the 
invasion  of  that  territory  by  the  Indians  and  their 
British  instigators,  there  were  regiments  under  the 
command  of  Clark,  then  general,  of  men  like  colo- 
nels Ben  Logan,  John  Todd  and  John  Bowman, 
whose  muster  rolls  are  preserved.  They  may  be  said 
to  have  held  against  the  British  the  western  line  of 
defense  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  which  not  only 
secured  the  safety  of  the  pioneers  of  Kentucky,  but 
contributed,  most  effectively,  to  the  success  of 
Washington  in  the  east,  since,  had  Clark  suffered 
defeat,  there  would  have  been  a  repetition  of  the 
calamity  which  followed  the  defeat  of  Braddock  in 
1775,  when  the  colonial  settlers  were  driven  east- 
ward beyond  the  Blue  Ridge.  Had  similar  disaster 
occurred  during  the  Revolution,  averted  only  by  the 
skill  and  valor  of  George  Rogers  Clark  and  the  Ken- 
tucky pioneers,  Washington  would  have  been  con- 
fronted by  a  dangerous  foe  in  his  rear  as  well  as  his 
front,  and  the  problem  of  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence would  most  probably  have  had  a  different 
solution. 

But  a  better  fortune  rewarded  the  valor  of  the 
army  of  western  patriots  whose  labors  were  pro- 
longed far  beyond  the  Peace  of  Paris.  Theirs  was 
not  only  the  task  to  defend  Kentucky  from  the  per- 
sistent aggressions  of  the  Indians,  encouraged  by 
their  British  allies,  but  to  protect  the  settlers  from 
the  east  on  the  territory  won  by  Clark  at  Kaskaskia 
and  Vincennes.  Unlike  the  pioneers  of  Kentucky, 
they  were  not  of  the  material  to  cope  with  the  sav- 
age, having  had  no  such  experience.  The  first  set- 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  277 

tlements  north  of  the  Ohio  were  at  Marietta  and 
Cincinnati  in  1788.  The  movement  was  a  commer- 
cial one,  involving  a  purchase  from  the  Federal 
government  of  two  very  large  tracts  of  land  of 
about  one  million  acres  each,  upon  the  Muskinghum 
and  between  the  Little  Miami  and  the  Scioto  rivers. 
The  projector  of  the  first  was  Bufus  Putnam,  of 
Massachusetts,  and  of  the  other  John  Cleve  Sym- 
mes,  of  New  Jersey.  The  settlers  on  the  Marietta 
tract  were  from  Massachusetts,  and  those  on  the 
other  body  of  lands  were  chiefly  from  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania.  They  had  had  no  experience 
in  frontier  life  or  Indian  warfare,  and  the  chief 
dependence  for  the  safety  of  the  homes  of  the  new- 
comers, as  well  as  the  security  of  Kentucky,  from 
Indian  depredations,  was  upon  the  more  experi- 
enced pioneers  of  the  latter.  To  meet  this  situation 
new  military  commanders  were  sent  from  the  regu- 
lar army  in  the  east,  as  generals  Harmar  and  St. 
Clair.  who  had  made  reputations  in  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  But  they,  as  well  as  the  regulars  whom 
they  brought  with  them,  were  unskilled  in  Indian 
warfare,  and  several  disastrous  defeats  followed. 
In  September,  1790,  General  Harmar  marched  from 
Cincinnati  to  attack  the  Miami  towns  in  the  western 
part  of  the  territory  with  two  large  detachments 
composed  of  both  regulars  and  militia,  which  were 
successively  surprised  and  routed  with  great 
slaughter.  He  was  superseded  in  the  following 
March  by  General  St.  Clair,  recently  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  the  northwestern  territory.  During  the 
summer  successful  expeditions  were  made  by  Gen. 
Charles  Scott,  of  Kentucky,  with  troops  of  that  ter- 
ritory, against  the  Indians  on  the  Wabash,  and  by 
General  Wilkinson,  also  with  Kentucky  troops. 
But  in  November  General  St.  Clair,  with  a  mixed 
army  of  regulars  and  militia,  attacked  the  Indian 


278  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

towns  on  the  Maumee  River  near  the  scene  of  Har- 
mar's  disaster,  meeting  even  greater  defeat  than 
the  latter,  being  surprised  and  overpowered  with  the 
loss  of  nearly  1,000  men  in  killed  and  wounded.  A 
better  condition  ensued  when  General  St.  Clair  was 
superseded  by  Gen.  Anthony  Wayne,  who  had  lately 
been  appointed  by  Washington  General-in-chief  of 
the  United  States  Army.  He  organized  a  body  of 
troops  which  he  drilled  and  trained  in  Indian  war- 
fare, and  built  Fort  Recovery  near  Greenville,  Ohio, 
and  Fort  Adams  at  the  junction  of  the  Maumee  and 
Auglaize  rivers.  He  then  held  the  Indians  in  check 
and  offered  them  peace  if  they  would  lay  down  their 
arms,  but  they  declined.  Having  in  the  preceding 
month  been  joined  by  Gen.  Charles  Scott,  after- 
wards governor  of  Kentucky,  with  1,000  Kentucky 
volunteers,  he  attacked  them  Aug.  20, 1794,  at  Fallen 
Timbers,  about  eleven  miles  southeast  of  Toledo, 
Ohio,  and  defeated  them  so  signally  that  it  proved 
the  last  of  the  long  series  of  conflicts  between  the 
whites  and  the  Indians  until  the  War  of  1812,  the 
final  treaty  of  peace  having  been  signed  at  Green- 
ville Aug.  3,  1795. 

The  War  of  1812. 

As  in  the  Revolutionary  War  and  the  decade  or 
more  subsequent  thereto  in  which  Kentucky  bore 
the  brunt  of  the  conflict  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  so 
in  the  second  conflict  with  Great  Britain  her  people, 
from  their  geographical  position  as  a  frontier 
western  state  between  the  northern  lakes  and  the 
Gulf,  were  called  upon  for  an  equally  active  partici- 
pation in  the  conflict.  The  relations  between  the 
United  States  and  France  during  the  revolutionary 
struggle  naturally  led  to  a  sympathetic  feeling  with 
that  power  in  the  Napoleonic  War,  and  Great 
Britain  was  not  slow  to  resent  such  manifestation, 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  279 

especially  when  assured  of  exceptional  sympathy  in 
her  behalf  on  the  part  of  several  of  the  New  Eng- 
land states.  Denying  the  right  of  her  citizens  to 
expatriate  themselves,  she  claimed  the  right  to 
search  our  vessels  for  British  seamen,  taking  them 
in  spite  of  their  naturalization  and  not  always  dis- 
criminating as  to  native  Americans.  She  also 
passed  orders  in  Council  requiring  all  neutral  ves- 
sels, in  sailing  from  one  foreign  port  to  another,  to 
enter  first  a  British  port.  In  view  of  such  tenden- 
cies Mr.  Jefferson,  in  1807,  recommended  the  pro- 
tection of  our  harbors  by  the  building  of  small  gun- 
boats for  their  defense.  On  the  22d  of  June  follow- 
ing occurred  the  outrage  by  which  the  British  man- 
of-war  Leopard  attacked  the  American  Chesapeake 
and,  after  its  surrender,  bore  off  a  number  of  its 
crew.  Upon  demand  by  Mr.  Jefferson  for  satisfac- 
tion and  security  from  further  outrage,  England 
made  amends  for  the  attack  on  the  Chesapeake  but 
claimed  the  right  of  search  and  refused  to  rescind 
the  orders  of  Council.  Congress  approved  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson's action  and  passed  an  act  prohibiting  the 
departure  of  any  American  vessels  from  the  ports 
of  the  United  States,  known  as  the  Embargo  Act. 
Irritation  on  these  accounts  continued  with  vain  at- 
tempt of  the  United  States  to  effect  a  termination 
of  the  wrongs.  Finally,  on  June  7,  1812,  President 
Madison  sent  a  message  to  Congress  reviewing  the 
action  of  Great  Britain  in  persisting  in  her  claim  of 
the  right  of  search  and  her  evident  determination, 
by  the  orders  in  Council,  to  destroy  American  com- 
merce, and  presenting  the  question  as  to  whether 
the  United  States  should  longer  continue  in  passive 
submission  or  resent  them  as. deserved. 

On  June  18  Congress  declared  war  against  Eng- 
land, and  on  the  19th  President  Madison  issued  his 
proclamation  making  formal  announcement  of  the 


280  THE  HISTOKY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

same  and  appealing  to  the  patriotism  of  the  people 
for  their  support  of  the  government.  The  war 
lasted  two  years  and  a  half,  the  treaty  of  Ghent 
terminating  it,  having  been  signed  Dec.  14,  1814. 
Kentucky  had  already  experienced  a  foretaste  of 
the  struggle  which  followed  this  declaration  in  the 
loss  of  several  of  its  prominent  citizens  in  the  battle 
of  Tippecanoe,  fought  on  Nov.  7,  1811,  between 
William  Henry  Harrison,  then  governor  of  Indiana 
and  afterward  President,  in  command  of  troops  of 
that  state  and  Kentucky,  and  "The  Prophet,"  a 
brother  of  Tecumseh,  the  Indian  chief  who,  in  the 
War  of  1812,  played  a  conspicuous  part  and  was 
killed  at  the  battle  of  the  Thames.  The  inception 
of  the  hostility  between  the  Indians  and  the  whites 
was  a  treaty  by  which  the  latter,  representing  the 
territory  of  Indiana,  had  purchased  certain  lands 
from  Indians  represented  by  Tecumseh  and  "The 
Prophet."  After  having  received  the  first  pay- 
ment they  conceived  the  idea  of  forming  a  great 
confederacy  of  Indians  for  wresting  from  the 
whites  the  Northern  territory,  evidence  not  being 
wanted  to  show  that  in  this  purpose  they  had  en- 
couragement from  the  British  on  the  Northern 
borders.  Their  settlement  was  in  central  Illinois 
on  the  Wabash  River,  and  having  made  evident 
their  hostile  purpose.  Governor  Harrison  began  en- 
ersretically  to  organize  a  force  to  attack  them. 
This  culminated  in  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe,  the 
name  of  the  Indian  settlement,  under  the  immediate 
command  of  General  Harrison,  in  which  the  army 
organized  by  him  consisted  chiefly  of  regulars,  two 
companies  of  Kentuckians  from  the  vicinity  of 
Louisville  and  a  number  of  volunteers  assigned  to 
various  duties.  Among  the  latter  who  fell  victims 
in  the  action  were  Col.  Joseph  Hamilton  Daviess 
and  Ool.  Abraham  Owen,  both  members  of  General 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  281 

Harrison's  staff.  The  former,  who  had  married  the 
sister  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  was  United  States 
district-attorney,  who  prosecuted  Aaron  Burr  in 
Frankfort  in  1806  for  alleged  treason,  and  the  lat- 
ter, who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  Indian 
wars  of  the  preceding  decade,  was  at  the  time  of 
death  a  member  of  the  Kentucky  senate.  The  vic- 
tory of  Harrison  was  complete  and  terminated  the 
issue  with  the  Indians.  In  the  presidential  election 
of  1840,  when  Harrison  and  Tyler  constituted  the 
ticket,  it  figured  prominently  in  the  canvass,  the 
favorite  party  cry  and  motto  being  "Tippecanoe 
and  Tyler  too." 

The  declaration  of  war  by  the  proclamation  of 
President  Madison  was  received  in  Kentucky  with 
enthusiastic  response.  Congress  having  authorized 
the  President  to  call  out  100,000  of  the  militia,  the 
quota  of  Kentucky  was  fixed  at  5,500.  This  call 
was  promptly  met.  Seven  thousand  volunteers 
offered  their  services  and  the  Kentucky  troops  were 
organized  with  ten  regiments,  and  in  August  four 
regiments,  with  Gen.  John  Payne  in  command,  ren- 
dezvoused at  Georgetown  where  they  were  elo- 
quently addressed  by  Henry  Clay.  On  the  19th 
they  marched  for  Cincinnati  on  their  way  to  join 
the  army  of  Gen.  Wm.  Hull,  a  veteran  of  the  Revo- 
lution, who  had  been  appointed  governor  of  Michi- 
gan by  Jefferson.  But  on  reaching  Cincinnati  they 
heard  of  Hull's  surrender  at  Detroit  on  the  16th 
with  900  men.  He  was  later  tried  by  court-martial 
for  treason,  cowardice  and  neglect  of  duty,  and  sen- 
tenced to  be  shot,  but  was  pardoned  by  the  Presi- 
dent in  view  of  his  service  in  the  Revolution.  Thus 
was  again  demonstrated,  as  in  the  case  of  St.  Clair, 
the  incapacity  of  the  veterans  of  the  east  to  cope 
with  the  enemy  in  the  west.  General  Harrison  suc- 
ceeding to  the  command,  the  campaign  which  fol- 


282  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

lowed  was  not  dissimilar  to  those  recounted  prior  to 
the  peace  of  Greenville  in  1795,  the  Indians  rally- 
ing to  the  support  of  the  British,  and  the  scenes  of 
Indian  warfare  of  that  period  being  reenacted  on 
the  Wabash  and  the  Miami.  But  General  Harrison 
with  Zachary  Taylor,  of  Kentucky,  then  a  captain, 
but  soon  promoted  major  and  afterward  President, 
pursued  a  vigorous  and  successful  campaign  rein- 
forced by  additional  levies  from  Kentucky.  But 
again  was  the  west,  and  especially  Kentucky,  made 
to  suffer  by  the  incompetence  of  the  eastern  officers 
who,  however,  successful  in  the  Revolutionary  War, 
proved  incompetent  to  cope  with  the  savage  of  the 
west.  Gen.  James  Winchester  had,  meantime,  been 
placed  in  command.  He  inaugurated  a  movement 
for  the  recapture  of  Detroit  early  in  January  1813, 
which  culminated  in  the  defeat  of  his  army  at  the 
river  Raisin  Jan.  22, 1813,  and  the  capture  of  himself 
and  the  greater  part  of  his  army.  But  this  did  not 
terminate  the  disaster.  The  prisoners,  exposed  to 
the  vigorous  cold  of  the  season,  disarmed,  and  rely- 
ing upon  the  good  faith  of  their  captors,  were 
turned  over  to  the  savage  brutality  of  the  Indians 
and  massacred  by  the  score.  Among  them  were 
Col.  John  Allen,  Capt.  Nathaniel  Hart  and  many 
other  prominent  Kentuckians  of  that  day,  whose 
bodies  were  not  later  identified  and  whose  bones 
were  left  to  bleach  upon  the  field.  In  the  following 
autumn,  when  the  Kentucky  troops  were  on  their 
way  southward  after  their  great  victory  at  the 
Thames,  they  recovered  sixty-nine  bodies  and  gave 
them  honorable  interment.  Subsequently,  in  1818, 
they  were  reinterred  in  the  cemetery  in  Monroe, 
Michigan,  the  site  of  the  battle.  In  1834  they  were 
brought  to  Kentucky  and  interred  in  the  state  lot 
in  the  Frankfort  cemetery.  The  battle  of  the 
Thames,  which  occurred  on  Oct.  5,  1813,  when  Gov- 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  283 

ernor  Shelby  reinforced  General  Harrison  with 
4,000  Kentuckians,  closed  the  campaign  in  the 
northwest.  Following  the  naval  victory  of  Commo- 
dore Perry  off  Put-in-Bay,  Lake  Erie,  Sept.  10, 
1813,  in  which  the  defeat  of  the  British  was  as  signal 
as  that  of  the  militia  on  the  Thames,  the  British 
were  left  without  the  means  of  further  resistance, 
and  hence  the  American  troops,  having  no  more 
occasion  for  service,  returned  to  their  homes,  save 
only  as  to  the  garrisons  at  certain  forts,  and  a  suc- 
cessful expedition  under  command  of  Maj.  Peter 
Dudley  against  the  Pottowatamies  in  November, 
1814. 

Some  adequate  conception  of  the  service  rendered 
by  Kentuckians  in  this  campaign  may  be  found  by 
the  after  history  of  many  of  those  who  shared  its 
clangers.  In  addition  to  Shelby,  who  had  but  re- 
cently been  elected  governor  for  the  second  time, 
there  were  Richard  M.  Johnson,  then  a  member  of 
Congress  and  afterward  senator  and  vice-president, 
Adair,  Desha  and  Crittenden,  governors,  Walker 
and  Barry,  senators,  and  the  latter,  with  McAfee 
and  Charles  A.  Wickliffe,  lieutenant-governors.* 

Battle  of  New  Orleans. 

The  next  call  upon  Kentucky  for  troops  was 
when  the  British,  under  General  Pakenham,  moved 
against  New  Orleans.  In  November  three  regi- 
ments rendezvoused  at  Louisville  in  1814,  viz. :  The 
first  under  command  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Sam- 
uel Mitchussen,  the  second,  Lieutenant- Colonel 
Gabriel  Slaughter,  and  the  third  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Presley  Gray.  They  had  been  summoned  hastily 
and,  poorly  armed  and  equipped  for  such  a  trip, 


*For  full  account  of  the  battle  of  the  Thames  and  those  who  took  part  in  it 
see  The  Battle  of  The  Thamet,  by  Bennett  H.  Young,  Filson  Publication,  No. 
18,  Louisville,  1903. 


284  THE  HISTOKY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

embarked  in  flat  boats  November  21.  They  were 
crowded  together  on  the  boats  without  any  shelter, 
and  the  hardships  and  exposure  endured  at  an  in- 
clement season  produced  much  sickness.  After 
many  delays  and  a  short  voyage  they  arrived  at 
New  Orleans  on  January  3.  A  portion  of  the  Ken- 
tucky command,  under  Col.  John  Davis,  was  placed 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  River  when  a 
flanking  movement  was  threatened,  and  the  re- 
mainder in  the  centre  of  the  main  line  of  defense  on 
the  east  side  under  command  of  Gen.  John  Adair, 
afterwards  governor,  near  the  Tennesseeans  under 
General  Carroll.  It  was  this  portion  of  the  latter 
line  which  received  the  main  attack  of  the  British 
who  were  approaching  in  close  range,  and  repulsed 
them  by  the  rapid  and  accurate  fire  of  the  western 
riflemen.  The  result  is  too  well  known  to  require 
detail,  the  flower  of  the  British  army  being  defeated 
with  great  slaughter,  including  the  commanding 
general,  while  the  American  loss  was  but  thirteen 
killed  and  thirty-nine  wounded.  The  saddest  part 
of  the  tragedy  was  later  disclosed  when  the  intelli- 
gence reached  America  that  the  treaty  of  Ghent, 
terminating  hostilities,  had  been  signed  on  De- 
cember 14  preceding.  Some  reflection  was  made 
upon  the  conduct  of  the  Kentucky  troops  posted  on 
the  western  bank  of  the  river,  resulting  in  a  con- 
troversy between  General  Adair  and  General  Jack- 
son, but  a  court  of  inquiry  relieved  the  troops  of 
any  censure  and  all  bitterness  of  feeling  was,  in 
time,  removed.  General  Adair,  who  had  been  a 
senator  in  Congress,  was  governor  of  Kentucky, 
1820-24. 

The  Mexican  War. 

The  Mexican  War  was  the  logical  result  of  the 
successful  revolution  of  Texas,  accomplished  by  the 
defeat  of  Santa  Anna  at  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto 


ZACHARY  TAYLOR. 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  285 

April  21,  1836.  Her  independence,  subsequently 
proclaimed,  was  acknowledged  by  the  United  States 
Oct.  22,  1837,  but  not  recognized  by  Mexico.  On 
the  1st  of  March,  1845,  Congress,  by  joint  resolu- 
tion, declared  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
and  the  same  having  been  communicated  to  that 
Republic  by  President  Polk,  it  was  ratified  by  the 
people  of  Texas  in  convention.  In  view  of  threaten- 
ing conditions  on  the  western  frontier  of  Texas  in 
January,  1846,  General  Taylor  was  ordered  to  take 
position  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
was  soon  confronted  by  General  Ampudia  with  a 
Mexican  army  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river. 
These  movements  culminated  in  the  battles  of  Palo 
Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma  on  May  8  and  9,  1846. 
The  war  which  ensued  was  prosecuted  with  vigor 
first  on  the  southwestern  border  of  Mexico  under  Gen. 
Zachary  Taylor,  afterward  President,  when  among 
the  battles  fought  were  Monterey  and  Buena  Vista, 
and  later  by  the  campaign  of  Gen.  Winfield  Scott 
from  Vera  Cruz  to  the  City  of  Mexico,  culminating 
in  the  capture  of  the  latter  Sept.  14,  1847.  Peace 
was  confirmed  by  the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo, 
Feb.  2,  1848,  by  which  Mexico  ceded  to  the  United 
States  New  Mexico  and  California. 

Under  a  call  for  2,600  troops  from  Kentucky, 
ready  response  was  made  by  the  Louisville  Legion, 
a  volunteer  organization,  and  on  the  21st  of  May, 
1846,  four  days  after  the  governor's  call,  the  com- 
mand left  on  steamboats  for  the  seat  of  war  via 
New  Orleans.  It  was  known  as  the  First  Regiment, 
commanded  by  Col.  Stephen  Ormsby,  and  was  fol- 
lowed later  by  the  Second  Regiment  with  Wm.  R. 
McKee  as  colonel  and  Henry  Clay,  Jr.,  lieutenant- 
colonel,  and  the  Third  Regiment,  cavalry,  with 
Humphrey  Marshall,  colonel,  and  E.  H.  Field,  lieu- 
tenant-colonel. Of  these  troops  the  loss  was  many 


286  THE  HISTORY  OP  KENTUCKY. 

at  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  Feb.  22,  1846,  includ- 
ing the  death  of  Colonel  Clay  and  Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel McKee.  In  August,  1847,  under  another  call, 
two  more  regiments  were  accepted,  while  twelve 
other  companies  which  offered  were  rejected  as  the 
quota  was  full.  The  regimental  officers  of  one  regi- 
ment were  Munlins  V.  Thompson,  colonel,  Thomas 
L.  Crittenden,  lieutenant-colonel,  and  John  C. 
Breckinridge,  major,  and  of  the  others,  John  S. 
Williams,  colonel,  "William  Preston,  lieutenant- 
colonel,  and  W.  T.  Ward,  major.  These  commands 
marched  to  the  City  of  Mexico  too  late  to  partici- 
pate in  the  battles  preceding  its  capture.  Their 
service  was,  however,  useful,  as  the  city  remained 
in  possession  of  the  American  army  until  after  the 
formal  declaration  of  peace. 

In  looking  back  upon  the  Mexican  War  two 
things  attract  our  attention,  one  the  low  percentage 
of  loss  in  battle  compared  with  that  in  the  War  of 
Secession,  there  having  been  few  engagements 
which  would  have  ranked  above  skirmishes  in  com- 
parison with  the  battles  the  Federals  and  Confed- 
erates fought,  showing  at  once  the  improvement  in 
the  death-dealing  implements  of  war  in  the  interval 
and  the  more  evenly  matched  contestants.  The 
other  observation  worthy  of  note  is  the  fact  that 
the  Mexican  War  proved  a  great  school  of  educa- 
tion for  both  the  later  contending  armies.  This  was 
notable  not  only  in  the  regular  army  but  also  among 
the  volunteers.  From  Kentucky  the  Northern  army 
had  Generals  Thomas  L.  Crittenden,  Lovell  H. 
Eousseau,  Cassius  M.  Clay,  William  T.  Ward, 
Colonels  W.  E.  Woodruff,  C.  D.  Pennebaker  and 
others,  while  the  South  received  Generals  John  C. 
Breckinridge,  William  Preston,  John  S.  Williams, 
John  H.  Morgan,  Humphrey  Marshall,  Eoger  W. 
Hanson  and  many  others  of  less  rank.  The  war  was 


JOHN  C.  BRECKINRIDGE. 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  287 

also  a  stepping  stone  to  political  preferment,  having 
furnished  two  Presidents.  In  Kentucky  those  who 
had  aspirations  gratified  them  in  the  state  legisla- 
ture, one  or  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  in  foreign 
courts.  As  a  campaign  of  education  it  was,  however, 
less  remarkable  than  for  the  territorial  acquisition 
which  resulted  from  it.  Its  duration  was  but  two 
years,  and  yet  there  was  added  to  our  territory  an 
area  as  large  as  the  original  thirteen  states  at  a 
cost  of  less  than  that  of  one  year's  present  admin- 
istration of  the  government.  It  gave  us  control  of 
the  Pacific  coast  with  all  the  wealth  of  California, 
and  rounded  out  our  boundary  so  as  to  leave  nothing 
further  to  be  desired  for  peace  with  our  continental 
neighbors. 

The  War  of  Secession. 

The  presidential  election  of  1860  found  Kentucky 
divided  in  political  sentiment,  as  between  the  lines 
of  the  old  Whig  and  Democratic  parties,  a  split  in 
the  latter  between  the  Breckinridge  and  Douglas 
factions  giving  the  electoral  vote  of  the  state  to 
Bell  and  Everett  by  a  plurality  of  over  twelve  thou- 
sand votes.  But  the  overwhelming  Southern  senti- 
ment was  evidenced  by  the  fact  that,  out  of  nearly 
150,000  votes,  Mr.  Lincoln  received  less  than  fifteen 
hundred.  As  the  discussion  which  followed  the 
election  became  more  and  more  intense,  pending  the 
inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  the  steps  taken  by 
several  of  the  Southern  states  for  the  establishment 
of  a  separate  government,  Kentucky  was  not  thrown 
from  her  poise  by  the  acts  of  the  extremists  on 
either  side.  Her  sympathies  were  with  the  South 
and  she  was  opposed  to  the  use  of  force,  but  men  of 
all  parties  were  strong  in  their  devotion  to  a  Con- 
stitutional Union,  from  the  great  benefits  derived 
therefrom,  as  well  as  from  the  geographical  posi- 
tion of  Kentucky  as  a  border  state.  In  a  called  ses- 


288  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

sion  of  the  legislature  in  January,  1861,  to  consider 
the  existing  state  of  affairs,  a  proposition  to  call  a 
convention  to  determine  the  ultimate  course  to  be 
pursued  as  between  the  North  and  the  South  was 
promptly  voted  down.  On  January  25  George  W. 
Ewing,  of  Logan  county,  offered  two  resolutions, 
the  first  declaring  that  the  General  Assembly  had 
heard  with  profound  regret  of  the  resolutions  of 
the  states  of  New  York,  Ohio,  Maine  and  Massa- 
chusetts, tendering  to  the  President  men  and  money 
to  be  used  in  coercing  the  sovereign  states  of  the 
South  into  obedience  to  the  Federal  government; 
second,  declaring  that  when  those  states  shall  send 
armed  forces  to  the  South  for  such  purpose  "the 
people  of  Kentucky,  uniting  with  their  brethren  of 
the  South  will,  as  one  man,  resist  such  invasion  to 
the  last  extremity."  The  first  resolution  passed 
unanimously  and  the  second  by  a  vote  of  eighty- 
seven  to  six.  The  Bell  and  Everett  party  was 
equally  pronounced  with  the  Democratic  party  in  its 
opposition  to  force.  Governor  Ma^offin,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  call  for  troops  by  the  Secretary  of 
War  April  15,  after  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sumter, 
replied:  "I  say  emphatically  that  Kentucky  will 
furnish  no  troops  for  the  wicked  purpose  of  sub- 
duing her  sister  states."  If  there  was  any  consider- 
able body  of  men  in  Kentucky  who  differed  from 
this  declaration,  it  was  not  made  known.  The 
Democratic  party,  of  course,  concurred  with  it.  The 
Bell  and  Everett  and  Douglas  parties  had  fused, 
and  their  committee,  calling:  itself  the  Democratic 
Union  Committee,  composed  of  such  men  as  George 
D.  Prentice,  editor  of  the  Louisville  Journal,  the 
Whig  organ,  John  H.  Harney,  editor  of  the  Louis- 
ville Democrat,  the  Douglas  organ,  and  James 
Speed,  afterward  attorney-general,  on  the  17th  of 
April,  unanimously  adopted  the  following  among 


KENTUCKY  FKOM  1792  TO  1865.  289 

other  resolutions:  "We  approve  the  response  of 
the  Executive  of  the  Commonwealth,"  adding  that 
"if  the  enterprise  announced  in  the  proclamation 
of  the  President  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  assume 
the  aspect  of  a  war  for  the  overrunning  and  subju- 
gation of  the  seceding  states,  through  the  full  asser- 
tion therein  of  the  national  jurisdiction  by  a  stand- 
ing military  force,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
Kentucky  should  unsheath  the  sword  in  what  will 
then  have  become  a  common  cause."  Kentucky  was 
then  a  unit  on  this  proposition,  and  had  the  so- 
called  Union  element  kept  good  faith  the  many  woes 
which  her  people  endured  during  the  four  years' 
war  might  have  been  greatly  diminished,  if  not 
wholly  averted.  But  in  time  the  position  taken  by 
the  anti-Democratic  party,  proved  delusive,  and  the 
Southern  element  having  trusted  too  implicitly  in 
their  good  faith  found  themselves,  in  a  few  months, 
abandoned  by  their  late  allies  and  the  state  under 
the  domination  of  the  Federal  army.  On  April  17, 
the  same  day  the  Union  committee  adopted  the 
resolution  cited,  Mr.  Crittenden,  who  had  just  fin- 
ished a  term  in  the  Senate,  made  a  speech  in  Lex- 
ington in  which  he  proclaimed  the  doctrine  of  an 
armed  neutrality,  with  the  assertion  that  if  Ken- 
tucky would  refrain  from  taking  trnrt  in  the  con- 
troversy war  might  be  averted.  General  Breckin- 
ridge,  his  successor,  personally  expressed  his  con- 
currence and  committed  himself  and  his  party  to 
the  policy.  It  was  evident,  even  to  the  most  bitter 
Southern  sympathizer,  that  if  this  condition  should 
be  maintained  it  would  give  protection  to  nearly  700 
miles  of  Southern  border.  It  was  not  long,  however, 
before  evidence  of  bad  faith  became  manifest. 
Lieutenant  William  Nelson,  of  the  navy,  a  Ken- 
tuekion,  came  to  the  state  on  a  secret  mission  and 
after  conference  with  the  leaders  of  the  Union  party 

Vol.  1— 19. 


290  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

was,  as  shown  later  by  the  official  records,  as  early 
as  July  1,  authorized  by  the  President  to  recruit 
five  regiments  of  infantry  and  one  of  cavalry  and 
notified  by  him  that  10,000  arms  and  accoutrements 
would  be  sent  for  the  men  thus  enlisted  and  the 
Home  Guards  (see  Rebellion  Record,  Vol.  IV.,  pp. 
251-52).  In  due  time  he  established  Camp  Dick 
Eobinson  in  Garrard  county  as  a  recruiting  station, 
and  it  was  in  full  operation  before  the  expiration  of 
the  summer.  Gen.  George  H.  Thomas  was  assigned 
to  the  command  of  that  post  Sept.  10,  1861.  Pend- 
ing these  secret  movements  for  recruiting  and  or- 
ganizing Federal  troops  in  Kentucky,  the  facts  of 
which  were  only  made  public  after  the  war,  in  the 
volume  cited,  assurances  were  being  given  by 
the  leading  Union  men  that  the  neutrality  of  Ken- 
tucky would  be  respected.  President  Lincoln  hav- 
ing, late  in  April,  assured  Mr.  Crittenden  that 
while  he  hoped  Kentucky  would  act  with  the  govern- 
ment, if  she  would  not  and  could  remain  neutral,  no 
hostile  step  should  tread  her  soil.  Meantime,  as 
evidence  of  respect  for  the  neutrality  of  the  state, 
those  who  wished  to  take  sides  with  the  South  in 
the  pending  war  went  beyond  the  Southern  border 
of  Kentucky  for  organization,  while  men  like  Rous- 
seau, intent  on  supporting  the  Federal  authority  in 
its  alleged  purpose  of  protecting  the  public  prop- 
erty at  Washington,  entered  upon  the  recruiting 
service,  but  fixed  their  camps  outside  the  state  across 
the  Ohio.  Lulled  into  confidence  by  the  assurance 
of  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  government  at 
Washington  and  its  adherents  in  Kentucky,  the 
Southern  leaders  awoke  too  late  to  a  realization  of 
the  fact  that  they  had  been  circumvented  and  that 
upon  proper  pretext  they  would  be  made  to  feel  the 
full  weight  of  the  Federal  power.  With  the  ap- 
proach of  autumn  a  play  for  advantage  began  be- 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1793  TO  1865.  291 

tween  the  authorities  at  Washington  and  those  at 
Richmond  upon  the  technicality  as  to  who  should 
claim  the  first  violation  of  neutrality,  in  which  the 
Southern  men  of  Kentucky  had  no  part.  General 
Grant,  who  occupied  Cairo,  threatened  Columbus, 
Ky.,  by  a  movement  on  the  Missouri  side  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  the  Federal  general,  Smith,  made 
demonstrations  threatening  Paducah.  General 
Polk  at  Memphis,  not  apparently  foreseeing  the 
consequences,  moved  north  and  occupied  Columbus 
September  3,  followed  on  the  5th  by  the  occupation 
of  Paducah,  Ky.,  by  General  Grant.  The  legislature 
elected  in  August  was  then  in  session  with  the  Union 
element  largely  in  the  majority,  and  on  September 
10  adopted  resolutions  to  notify  the  Confederate 
troops  to  withdraw  from  the  state,  declining  at  the 
same  time  to  take  similar  action  as  to  the  Federal 
force  at  Paducah.  Gen.  Robert  Anderson,  who  was 
in  command  of  Fort  Sumter  at  the  time  of  its  cap- 
ture, had,  on  August  15,  been  assigned  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  department  of  the  Cumberland  and  es- 
tablished his  headquarters  at  Louisville  shortly 
after  this  date.  Thus  fortified  and  assured  of  pro- 
tection, the  Federal  element  in  Kentucky  threw  off 
all  disguise  and,  at  its  instigation,  ihe  state  became 
at  once  the  theatre  of  malignant  persecution  of 
Southern  sympathizers  and  of  the  most  radical 
measures  for  its  subjugation  to  the  Federal  rule. 
On  the  night  of  September  18  ex-Gov.  Charles  S. 
Morehead  and  Col.  R.  T.  Durrett,  with  no  direct 
charge  against  them  except  that  of  sympathy  with 
the  South,  were  arrested  at  their  homes  in  Louis- 
ville and  sent  to  Fort  Warren  in  Boston  Harbor,  as 
the  initial  move  for  similar  persecution  of  others  of 
the  same  class.  Simultaneous  with  this  act  General 
Rousseau 's  command,  which  had  been  in  camp  in 
Indiana  opposite  Louisville,  crossed  the  river  into 


292  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

Kentucky  and  marched  through  the  streets  with 
loaded  guns,  without  demonstration  of  welcome 
from  the  citizens,  and  were  thence  moved  south- 
ward towards  Bowling  Green,  which,  on  the  same 
day,  was  occupied  by  Gen.  S.  B.  Buckner  command- 
ing a  force  consisting  of  2,500  Tennesseeans  and 
1,500  Kentucky  troops  organized  at  Camp  Boone, 
just  across  the  interstate  line.  On  the  next  night 
Colonel  Bramlette  moved  from  Camp  Dick  Robin- 
son to  Lexington  for  the  arrest  of  John  C.  Breckin- 
ridge,  William  Preston  and  other  prominent  Demo- 
crats who,  relying  upon  the  good  faith  which  had 
been  assured  them  of  exemption  from  persecution, 
had  remained  at  home  in  pursuit  of  their  several 
avocations.  Forewarned  of  their  danger  they  left 
the  city,  and  together  with  others  of  similar  promi- 
nence made  their  way  through  the  mountains  of 
eastern  Kentucky  to  Virginia  where,  in  time,  they 
took  service  in  the  Confederate  army. 

The  foregoing  narrative  of  the  circumstances  at- 
tending the  action  of  Kentucky  at  the  inception  of 
the  war,  extended  beyond  otherwise  reasonable  lim- 
its in  a  brief  history  such  as  this,  is  necessary  to  the 
vindication  of  the  patriotic  Kentuckians  who  gave 
their  lives  and  fortunes  to  the  cause  of  the  South 
in  the  four  years'  struggle  for  its  liberties.  Their 
after  deeds  are  recorded  in  the  official  annals  of  the 
war,  but  there  is  not  elsewhere  to  be  found  as  full 
and  succinct  an  account  of  their  action  in  the  inter- 
val treated,  of  the  details  of  which  the  author  can 
truthfully  say,  Omnia  quorum  vidi,  et  pars  fui.  The 
official  records  of  the  war  on  both  sides  attest  the 
valor  and  faithful  service  of  the  Kentuckians  who, 
giving  up  home  and  family  for  the  defense  of  a 
principle,  left  their  bones  to  bleach  on  the  battle- 
fields or  returned  after  the  struggle  to  begin  life 
anew,  wrecked  in  their  estates,  and  with  only  the 


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KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  293 

sublime  consolation  that  they  had  done  their  duty 
as  God  gave  them  to  see  it.  But  there  is  not  else- 
where readily  accessible  an  accurate  account  of  the 
perfidy  and  usurpation  of  power  which  preceded 
and  ultimately  secured  the  Federal  occupation  and 
control  of  Kentucky. 

The  first  serious  battle  on  Kentucky  soil  was  at 
Mill  Spring  in  Pulaski  county,  ten  miles  north  of 
the  Cumberland  Kiver,  Jan.  19,  1862,  when  Gen. 
George  B.  Crittenden  with  his  command  of  5,000  in- 
fantry and  one  battery  of  artillery  advanced  to  at- 
tack the  Federal  army  under  Gen.  George  H. 
Thomas,  of  nearly  equal  numbers,  two  of  the  regi- 
ments being  Col.  Speed  Smith  Fry's  Fourth  Ken- 
tucky Infantry  and  Col.  Frank  Walford's  regiment 
of  Kentucky  cavalry.  The  opening  of  the  battle 
was  favorable  to  the  Confederates,  but  General  Zol- 
licoffer,  second  in  command  of  the  Confederate 
force,  having  been  killed  by  a  pistol  shot  by  Colonel 
Fry,  of  the  Federal  army,  and  a  heavy  reinforce- 
ment to  the  Federal  force  marching  to  the  field  un- 
der the  command  of  Col.  John  M.  Harlan,  General 
Crittenden  was  compelled  to  fall  back  and  recrossed 
the  Cumberland  with  his  army,  after  having  expe- 
rienced comparatively  small  loss  of  life,  but  being 
compelled  to  abandon  ten  pieces  of  artillery,  all  of 
his  horses  and  wagons  and  a  large  quantity  of  am- 
munition and  stores.  This  reverse  shed  quite  a 
gloom  among  the  Southern  element  in  the  state. 
In  the  meantime  Gen.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  a 
Kentuckian,  who  was  in  command  of  the  Military 
Department  of  the  Pacific  at  the  inception  of  the 
war,  and  had  resigned  in  April,  had  ridden  on  horse- 
back 1,500  miles  to  Texas.  Having  been  appointed 
to  the  command  of  the  Confederate  Department  No. 
2,  including  Kentucky,  he  had  established  his  head- 
quarters at  Bowling  Green  with  about  4,000  men 


294  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

under  Gen.  S.  B.  Buckner,  composed  of  Tennessee 
troops,  the  Second  Kentucky  Eegiment  and  parts 
of  the  Third  and  Fourth  recruited  at  Camp  Trous- 
dale  near  Nashville.  General  Sherman  had  been 
superseded  by  General  Buell,  and  the  Green  Eiver 
formed  the  line  between  the  advance  of  the  respect- 
ive armies.  It  was  merely  a  tentative  line  to  cover 
the  operations  of  the  two  armies  during  organiza- 
tion for  activity  in  other  fields.  The  active  cam- 
paign began  on  Feb.  6,  1863,  with  a  Federal  attack 
upon  Fort  Henry  on  the  Tennessee  Eiver,  resulting 
in  the  capture  of  the  post  with  Gen.  Lloyd  Tilghman, 
of  Kentucky,  and  eighty  men,  after  a  gallant  de- 
fense ;  his  main  force  of  3,000  men  having  fallen  back 
on  Fort  Donelson,  eastwardly,  on  the  Cumberland. 
To  the  defense  of  this  post  General  Johnston  sent 
General  Pillow  with  4,000  men  on  the  9th,  and  on 
the  12th  reinforced  him  with  the  commands  of  Gen- 
erals Floyd  and  Buckner,  8,000  men.  At  the  same 
time  recognizing  the  danger  to  which  he  would  be 
exposed  at  Bowling  Green  by  the  depletion  of  his 
force  and  the  necessity  of  covering  Nashville,  he  fell 
back  upon  the  latter  place  at  which  he  arrived  on  the 
15th,  the  withdrawal  being  made  without  loss  of 
any  material  and  in  perfect  order.  The  fall  of  Fort 
Donelson  on  the  16th  by  its  surrender  to  General 
Grant  after  a  strenuous  defense  by  Gen.  S.  B. 
Buckner,  after  Generals  Floyd  and  Pillow,  his  se- 
niors, had  imposed  that  duty  upon  him  by  escaping 
to  Nashville,  was  a  far-reaching  disaster  which 
opened  up  to  the  recapture  of  the  enemy  not  only 
all  of  Kentucky  but  all  of  Tennessee  west  of  the 
Cumberland  mountains.  Among  the  troops  surren- 
dered were  the  Second  and  Eighth  Kentucky,  which, 
with  General  Buckner,  were  retained  as  prisoners  in 
the  North  until  exchanged  in  the  following  August. 
Of  the  military  operations  which  followed,  it  is 


KENTUCKY  FEOM  1792  TO  1865.  295 

not  within  the  scope  of  the  history  to  enter  into 
detail.  During  the  remainder  of  the  war  the  Ken- 
tuckians  who  had  left  their  homes,  most  of  them, 
hastily  and  with  little  preparation,  to  vindicate  a 
principle  dear  to  them,  and  who  survived  its  terrors 
of  battle,  disease  and  imprisonment  as  captors, 
quite  as  deadly  as  the  first,  were  separated  from 
their  families  for  more  than  three  years,  except  in 
such  brief  opportunity  as  was  afforded  by  the  cav- 
alry raids  and  the  invasion  of  Kentucky  by  the  army 
of  General  Bragg  in  the  autumn  of  1862.  A  large 
proportion  did  not  live  to  enjoy  this  pleasure.  A 
true  muster  roll  of  Kentucky's  contribution  to  the 
war  can  never  be  made,  even  though  every  military 
organization  which  they  composed  were  officially 
recorded,  since  under  the  conditions  hedging  them 
about  there  were  numbers  who  were  in  the  service 
of  other  states.  The  most  reliable  estimate  is  that 
there  were  in  the  Confederate  army  30,000,  and  in 
the  Federal  75,000,  the  latter  including  negroes. 
Many  thousand  more  Kentuckians  served  in  the 
ranks  from  other  Southern  states. 

The  following  is  a  list  showing  the  various  com- 
mands as  organized,  with  the  names  of  their  first 
commanders  and  dates  of  commission: 

INFANTRY 

First  Regiment,  Thomas  H.  Taylor,  colonel,  Oct.  14,  1861;  Second 
Regiment,  James  M.  Hawes,  colonel,  July  17,  1861;  Third  Regiment, 
Lloyd  Tilghman,  colonel,  July  5,  1861;  Fourth  Regiment,  Robert  P. 
Trabue,  colonel,  Sept.  23,  1861;  Fifth  Regiment,  John  S.  Williams, 
colonel,  Nov.  19,  1861 ;  Sixth  Regiment,  Joseph  H.  Lewis,  colonel,  Nov. 
1,  1861;  Seventh  Regiment,  Charles  Wickliffe,  colonel,  Nov.  1,  1861; 
Eighth  Regiment,  Henry  C.  Burnett,  colonel,  Oct.  3,  1861;  Ninth  Regi- 
ment, Thos.  H.  Hunt,  colonel,  Oct.  3,  1861;  Graves  Battery,  Rice  E. 
Graves,  captain,  Nov.  8,  1861;  Lyon's  and  Cobb's  Battery,  H.  B.  Lyons, 
captain,  Sept.  1, 1861;  Corbett's  Battery,  Henry  D.  Green,  captain. 

CAVALRY 

First  Regiment,  Ben  Hardin  Helm;  Second  Regiment,  John  H.  Mor- 
gan, colonel,  Oct.  2,  1861;  Third  Regiment  (afterwards  consolidated 
with  First),  J.  Russell  Butler,  colonel;  Fourth  Regiment,  Henry  L.  Gilt- 
ner,  colonel,  Oct.  6,  1862;  Fifth  Regiment,  D.  Howard  Smith,  colonel, 


296  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

Oct.  6,  1862;  Sixth  Regiment,  J.  Warren  Grisgby,  colonel,  Sept,  25, 
1862;  Seventh  Regiment,  R.  M.  Gano,  colonel,  Sept.  25,  1861;  Eighth 
Regiment,  Roy  S.  Cluke,  colonel,  Sept.  10,  1862;  Ninth  Regiment,  W.  C. 
P.  Breckinridge,  colonel,  Dec.  17,  1862;  Tenth  Regiment,  Adam  R. 
Johnson,  colonel,  Aug.  13,  1862;  May's  Battalion  Kentucky  and  Vir- 
ginia Mounted  Rifles,  A.  J.  May,  colonel;  Eleventh  Regiment,  D.  W. 
Chenault,  colonel,  Sept.  10,  1862;  Twelfth  Regiment,  W.  W.  Faulkner, 
colonel,  Sept.  15,  1863;  Thirteenth  Kentucky  Regiment,  Ben  E.  Caudill, 
colonel,  Nov.,  1862;  First  Battalion,  W.  E.  Simms,  1861;  Second  Bat- 
talion, Clarence  J.  Prentice,  1862;  First  Battalion  Mounted  Rifles,  Ben- 
jamin F.  Bradley,  major,  1861;  First  Special  Battalion,  W.  W.  Ward, 
colonel,  Nov.  10,  1864;  Third  Battalion  Mounted  Rifles,  Ezekiel  F.  Clay, 
lieutenant-colonel,  Nov.  7,  1862;  Third  Special  Battalion  Cavalry, 
Joseph  T.  Tucker,  colonel,  Nov.  10,  1864;  Independent  Battalion  Cav- 
alry, Bart  W.  Jenkins,  captain;  Jessee's  Battalion,  George  N.  Jessee; 
Independent  Company  (afterwards  known  as  Woodward's  Regiment), 
Thomas  G.  Woodward,  captain,  Aug.  25,  1862;  Independent  Company, 
James  M.  Bolin,  captain,  Nov.  21, 1862;  King's  Battalion,  H.  Clay  King, 
major;  Independent  Company,  J.  J.  Murphey,  captain;  Moorhead'a 
Partisan  Rangers,  J.  C.  Moorhead,  colonel;  Buckner's  Guards,  Culvin  S. 
Sanders;  Company  of  Partisan  Rangers,  William  J.  Fields,  captain,  Aug. 
1,  1862;  Company  of  Partisan  Rangers,  Philip  M.  Victor. 

There  were  other  organizations  composed  in 
whole  or  part  of  Kentuckians  of  which  there  is  no 
official  record,  as  Byrne's  Battery,  which,  although 
first  organized  in  Mississippi,  was  composed  of  and 
officered  by  Kentuckians  almost  exclusively.  In 
the  service  Kentucky  contributed  to  the  Confederate 
army  a  large  number  of  able  and  distinguished  offi- 
cers, some  of  whom  are  accredited  to  other  states, 
but  most  of  whom  went  directly  from  Kentucky. 
The  following  is  a  list  of  them : 

General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston  (Texas);  Lieutenant-General  Simon 
Bolivar  Buckner;  Lieutenant-General  John  B.  Hood  (Texas);  Lieu- 
tenant-General Richard  Taylor  (Louisiana);  Major-Generals :  John  C. 
Breckinridge,  George  B.  Crittenden,  William  Preston.  Gustavus  W. 
Smith.  Brigadier-Generals:  John  H.  Morgan,  Daniel  W.  Adams  (Mis- 
sissippi), Roger  W.  Hanson,  Basil  W.  Duke,  Abram  Buford,  George  B. 
Cosby,  John  S.  Williams,  James  M.  Hawes,  Ben  Hardin  Helm,  George 
B.  Hodge,  Claiborne  F.  Jackson  (Missouri),  Joseph  H.  Lewis,  Samuel  B. 
Maxey  (Texas),  Randall  L.  Gibson,  (Louisiana),  Thomas  H.  Taylor. 

Provisional  Government  of  Kentucky. 

On  Nov.  18,  1861,  a  Sovereignty  Convention  was 
held  in  Eussellville,  Kentucky,  at  which  two  hundred 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  297 

members  were  present  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a 
state  government  favorable  to  a  union  with  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  It  remained  in  session 
three  days  and  adopted  a  constitution  which  pro- 
vided for  a  provisional  government  vesting  all  ex- 
ecutive and  legislative  powers  in  a  council  of  ten, 
the  council  to  fill  vacancies.  The  existing  constitu- 
tion and  laws  were  declared  to  be  in  force  except 
when  inconsistent  with  the  acts  of  that  convention 
and  of  the  legislative  council.  George  W.  Johnson, 
of  Scott  county,  was  elected  governor;  Robert 
McKee,  of  Louisville,  secretary  of  state,  and  Or- 
lando F.  Payne,  assistant  secretary;  Theodore  L. 
Burnett,  of  Spencer  county,  treasurer,  who  resigned 
December  17,  and  J.  B.  Burnham,  of  Warren  county, 
was  appointed  in  his  place;  Richard  Hawes,  of 
Bourbon  county,  auditor,  who  resigned,  and  Joshua 
Pillsbury  was  appointed  in  his  place. 

An  ordinance  of  secession  was  adopted,  and 
Henry  C.  Burnett,  William  E.  Simms  and  William 
Preston  were  sent  as  commissioners  to  Richmond, 
and  on  Dec.  10,  1862,  the  Confederate  Congress  ad- 
mitted Kentucky  as  a  member  of  the  Confederate 
states. 

Upon  the  death  of  Gov.  George  W.  Johnson,  who 
fell  on  the  second  day  at  Shiloh  while  fighting  in  the 
ranks,  the  legislative  council,  which  retained  its  or- 
ganization during  the  war,  elected  Hon.  Richard 
Hawes  his  successor.  While  the  state  was  occupied 
by  the  Confederate  army  under  General  Bragg, 
Governor  Hawes  was  duly  inaugurated  and  deliv- 
ered an  inaugural  address  in  the  capitol  at  Frank- 
fort Oct.  4.  1862.  But  the  evacuation  of  the  place 
occurring  within  a  few  hours  precluded  the  exercise 
of  any  of  his  official  functions. 


298  THE  HISTOEY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

The  Return  of  Peace. 

After  the  surrender  of  General  Lee  at  Appomat- 
tox  and  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston  at  Greensboro, 
N.  C.,  the  Kentuckians  who  received  paroles  were, 
for  a  time,  barred  from  returning  to  their  homes 
by  an  opinion  rendered  by  James  Speed,  United 
States  attorney-general,  himself  a  Kentuckian. 
This  was  to  the  effect  that  Kentuckians,  Missouri- 
ans  and  Marylanders  having  left  their  homes  to 
make  war  on  the  Union  were  not  entitled  to  the 
privilege  of  the  parole.  This  delayed  their  return  to 
Kentucky,  but  after  an  interval  of  several  weeks 
the  decision  was  rescinded  and  gradually  the  weary 
exiles  returned  to  their  homes,  the  welcome  which 
they  received  going  far  to  repay  them  for  the  trials 
through  which  they  had  gone  and  to  nerve  them  for 
a  renewed  struggle  in  the  peaceful  pursuit  of  a  live- 
lihood. They  found  the  conditions  much  changed 
from  those  attending  the  Federal  occupation  of  the 
state,  the  oppression  inflicted  upon  the  people  by 
the  satraps  like  Burbridge,  Palmer  and  Payne  had 
changed  the  whole  current  of  political  feeling. 
Many  who  had  been  prominent  at  the  inception  of 
the  war  in  handing  over  the  state  to  Federal  con- 
trol, had  been  sent  to  Northern  prisons  or  through 
the  lines  South,  as  was  Lieut.-Gov.  Richard  T.  Jacob, 
an  early  Federal  volunteer,  near  the  close  of  the 
war.  Garrett  Davis,  who  had  succeeded  Breckin- 
ridge  in  the  Senate  as  a  reward  for  his  services  in 
shackling  the  state,  was  as  severe  against  the  ad- 
ministration at  Washington  as  his  predecessor  had 
been  four  years  previously,  and  was  as  roundly  de- 
nounced as  an  arch-rebel.  So  that  instead  of  com- 
ing home  to  be  disciplined,  the  Southern  soldier  was 
received  with  open  arms,  and  by  none  more  cor- 
dially than  by  the  Union  soldier.  At  the  meeting  of 
the  first  legislature  all  disabilities  were  removed, 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  299 

and  at  the  second  a  number  of  ex-Confederates  were 
members;  and  within  two  years  the  Confederate 
element  was  in  control  of  the  state,  magnanimously 
opposing  any  discrimination  against  those  who  wore 
the  blue,  and  maintaining  ever  since  the  most  cor- 
dial relations  with  them.  Thus  again  reunited,  the 
people  of  Kentucky  soon  built  up  the  waste  places 
and  the  state  has  prospered  in  every  line  of  physical 
and  intellectual  development.  The  thorough  re- 
union of  the  people  of  the  state  was  well  illustrated 
during  the  war  with  Spain,  when  former  Confeder- 
ate officers  and  soldiers  vied  with  the  Federal  ele- 
ment in  the  promptness  with  which  they  rallied  to 
the  standard  of  the  country,  and  maintained  its 
honor  on  the  field  of  battle. 

Mountain  Feuds. 

One  of  the  features  of  Kentucky  life  which  has 
excited  much  comment  and  given  to  the  state  an  un- 
enviable reputation  has  been  the  feuds  which,  al- 
though confined  to  the  mountain  counties,  have  been 
credited  to  the  state  at  large  and  interpreted  as 
indicating  an  irreconcilable  hostility  between  the 
extreme  classes,  or,  as  otherwise  expressed,  between 
the  mountaineers  and  the  aristocracy.  This  has  not 
only  been  greatly  exaggerated  as  to  the  extent  of  the 
area  in  which  such  disturbances  have  occurred,  but 
also  as  to  the  nature  of  the  lawlessness  with  which 
the  state  has  been  accredited.  The  population  of 
Kentucky  is  more  homogeneous  than  that  of  any 
other  state  in  the  Union.  It  is  the  largest  aggrega- 
tion of  English-speaking  people  on  the  continent 
and  with  less  continental  element  than  is  to  be  found 
in  any  other  body  of  like  numbers.  The  total  popu- 
lation of  Kentucky  by  the  census  of  1890  was  1,858,- 
635,  divided  as  follows :  Native-born,  1,799,279 ;  for- 
eign-born, 59,305 ;  colored,  381,137.  By  that  of  1900 


300  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

it  was  2,380,887,  of  whom  50,249  were  of  foreign 
birth  and  284,708  negroes,  the  remainder  being  57 
Chinese  and  102  Indians.  And  this  ratio  of  whites 
and  native-born  citizens  has  been  maintained  from 
its  earliest  statehood. 

The  state  embraces  an  area  of  about  42,500  square 
miles  with  every  variety  of  topography  and  geology 
above  the  arehaean.  The  length  from  east  to  west 
is  about  350  miles,  and  its  greatest  breadth  is  175 
miles.  Its  shape  is  somewhat  that  of  a  triangle, 
with  its  apex  on  the  Mississippi  River  at  an  alti- 
tude of  275  feet  above  sea  level,  ascending  eastward, 
gradually  at  first,  but  more  rapidly  after  reaching 
the  central  portion  until  it  attains  an  elevation  at 
the  Cumberland  range  of  2,500  feet,  with  excep- 
tional points  in  the  extreme  middle  east  of  4,000 
feet.  Its  geology  includes  all  the  formations  from 
the  lower  silurian  to  the  quarternary,  the  variation 
in  altitude  giving  a  corresponding  variety  in  climate 
and  production  so  that,  while  in  the  lowlands  of  its 
western  portion  the  production  of  cotton  is  prac- 
tical and  the  cypress  of  the  South  grows  in  its 
swamps,  in  the  mountains  of  the  east  only  the  hardy 
cereals  are  cultivated,  and  the  forest  growth  in- 
cludes the  pine  and  hemlock  of  the  more  northern 
climes.  It  will  be  readily  seen,  therefore,  what  a 
wide  range  there  exists  within  a  boundary  of  such 
diverse  physical  features  for  a  corresponding  dif- 
ference in  the  mental,  moral  and  physical  qualities 
of  the  residents  of  the  mountains  and  the  less  ele- 
vated portions  of  the  state.  It  is  not  because  they 
are  of  a  different  race.  They  are  practically  of  the 
same,  the  foreign  population  being  found  chiefly  in 
the  cities  and  the  negroes  confined  to  the  central 
and  western  agricultural  portions  of  the  state,  there 
being  very  few  of  either  element  in  the  mountains, 
some  of  the  counties  having  neither.  Thus,  the 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1885.  301 

population  of  that  region  is  almost  exclusively  com- 
posed of  native-born  whites,  chiefly  descendants  of 
the  original  settlers  from  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
lina, and  homogeneous  with  the  great  body  of  the 
native-born  whites  of  other  portions  of  the  state. 
The  mountain  section  of  Kentucky  comprises  about 
one- fourth  of  the  state,  its  boundaries  being  approx- 
imately those  of  the  eastern  coal  field.  The  greater 
part  of  it  is  still  thickly  timbered  and  threaded  with 
many  small  streams,  the  head  waters  of  the  Big 
Sandy,  the  Kentucky  and  the  Cumberland  and 
Licking  rivers,  unnavigable  except  for  rafting  logs 
after  a  heavy  rainfall,  unless  with  slack-water  im- 
provement. In  the  narrow  valleys  and  coves  the 
soil  is  rich,  and  with  good  cultivation  productive 
wherever  it  is  level  enough  for  agriculture,  but  the 
great  drawback  either  to  agricultural  or  other  de- 
velopment was,  in  early  times,  and  has  been  until 
a  very  recent  period,  from  the  inability  to  ship 
products  requiring  land  transportation  on  account 
of  the  lack  of  railroad  or  other  facilities.  To  un- 
derstand the  situation  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
prior  to  the  War  of  Secession  there  was  not  a  mile 
of  railroad  within  this  whole  region,  and  while  it 
was  the  first  portion  to  receive  the  footprint  of  the 
pioneer  it  has  been  the  last  to  feel  the  awakening 
touch  of  modern  development. 

A  thrifty  class  of  immigrants  from  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina,  with  a  strong  infusion  of  Scotch 
blood,  found  their  homes  in  these  mountains  during 
the  two  decades  following  the  Revolutionary  War. 
By  the  natural  law  of  migration  which  leads  those 
who  seek  homes  in  a  new  country  to  select  one  hav- 
ing features  similar  to  that  from  which  they  mi- 
grate, the  ancestors  of  these  movers  had  settled  in 
the  highlands  of  the  colonies  even  as  they  had  lived 
in  those  of  their  nativity.  The  same  law,  when  in 


302  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

their  second  migration  they  reached  Cumberland 
Gap,  led  them  to  select  the  mountainous  portions  of 
Kentucky  as  their  new  home.  Someone,  in  seeking 
a  cause  for  the  difference  between  the  people  of 
the  mountains  and  the  richer  and  more  level  area 
has  suggested  that  they  were  of  the  convict  or  in- 
dentured servant  class  transported  from  England 
and  sold  for  a  term  of  years.  But  this  is  untrue. 
There  was  such  an  element  in  Virginia  and  some 
other  colonies,  but  in  the  tide  of  immigration  to 
Kentucky  there  was  no  such  line  of  segregation.  A 
few  of  such  may  have  come  to  that  region,  degener- 
ates from  the  start,  but  the  great  body  of  mountain 
settlers  were  as  good  as  the  average  Kentucky  im- 
migrants, with  many  of  wealth  and  education  who 
brought  their  slaves.  Nor  was  the  immigration  to 
the  more  favored  portions  of  the  state  exclusively 
of  the  first  families  of  Virginia,  as  some  of  their 
descendants  would  have  us  believe,  but  included 
many  of  this  convict  and  indentured  class  from 
which  grew,  on  the  one  hand,  a  thrifty  crop  of  crim- 
inals, overseers  and  negro  traders,  and  on  the  other 
that  type  which  makes  itself  conspicuous,  upon  the 
requisition  of  wealth,  by  aping  the  manners  of  the 
well-bred  and  manufacturing  pedigrees  to  which 
they  have  no  just  title. 

The  mountain  people  have  been  much  slandered, 
and  their  feudal  troubles  being  of  the  Scotch  type 
involved  but  little  loss  of  life  and  less  of  property, 
and  in  recent  years,  save,  as  to  the  Hargis  feud  in 
Breathitt  county,  lately  terminated  by  the  death  of 
the  leader,  there  has  been  comparatively  little  dis- 
order. Notwithstanding  these  conditions,  crime  and 
vice  of  the  kind  which  fosters  in  certain  strata  of  a 
higher  civilization  did  not  prevail.  Bobbery  and 
murder  for  gain  were,  as  they  are  now,  almost  un- 
known. The  picture  drawn  by  Macaulay,  writing 


KENTUCKY  FROM  1792  TO  1865.  303 

but  little  over  a  half  century  ago,  of  the  conditions 
in  the  north  of  England,  is  darker  by  far  than  the 
worst  conditions  which  have  prevailed  in  any  part 
of  Kentucky :  * '  The  seats  of  country  gentry  and  the 
larger  farmhouses  were  fortified.  Oxen  were 
penned  at  night  beneath  the  overhanging  battle- 
ments of  'The  Peel.'  The  inmates  slept  with  arms 
at  their  sides.  Huge  stones  and  boiling  water  were 
in  readiness  to  crush  and  scald  the  plunderers  who 
might  venture  to  assail  the  little  garrison.  No 
traveler  ventures  into  that  country  without  making 
his  will.  The  judges  of  the  circuit  with  the  whole 
body  of  barristers,  attorneys,  clerks  and  serving 
men  rode  from  New  Castle  to  Carlisle,  armed  and 
escorted  by  a  strong  guard,  under  command  of  the 
sheriff.  It  was  necessary  to  carry  provisions,  for 
the  country  was  a  wilderness  which  afforded  no 
supplies.  Within  the  memory  of  some  whom  this 
generation  has  seen,  the  sportsmen  who  wandered 
in  the  pursuit  of  game  to  the  sources  of  the  Tyne 
found  the  heaths  among  the  Keeldar  Castle  peopled 
by  a  race  scarcely  less  savage  than  the  Indians  of 
California,  and  heard,  with  surprise,  the  half -naked 
women  chanting  a  wild  measure  while  the  men,  with 
brandished  dirks,  danced  a  wild  dance." 

But  as  the  region,  of  the  conditions  of  which  he 
draws  such  a  dark  picture,  has  since  become, 
through  its  developed  mines,  one  of  the  richest  and 
most  enlightened  in  England,  so  the  penetration  of 
the  mountains  of  Kentucky  by  railroads  within  the 
last  two  decades  has  relatively  changed  the  condi- 
tions in  that  much  misunderstood  portion  of  the 
state.  The  development  of  its  coal  mines  has  made 
Kentucky  eighth  in  the  production  of  that  mineral, 
the  output  of  that  fuel  in  the  eastern  coal-field  being 
nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  western,  previously  the 
chief  source  of  supply.  Schools,  colleges  and  uni- 


304  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

versities  are  now  spreading  their  light  in  regions 
which  so  long  felt  the  need  of  them.  Iron  furnaces 
and  other  similar  evidences  of  physical,  as  well  as 
social  and  mental,  progress  are  now  to  be  found  in 
this  portion  of  the  state. 

During  the  year  1908  the  state  was  disgraced  by 
the  lawlessness  of  the  night  riders  in  the  rich  and 
cultured  tobacco-growing  regions  not  unlike,  in  pur- 
pose, the  famous  Barn  Burner's  organization  of 
New  York,  which,  in  the  memory  of  those  living, 
exerted  a  strong  political  influence  not  limited  to  the 
state. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Collins,  R.  H.:  History  of  Kentucky  (2  vols.,  1874); 
Duke,  B.  W.:  History  of  Morgan's  Cavalry;  Durrett,  R.  T.:  Kentucky 
Resolutions  of  1798-99  Southern  Bivouac,  1899;  Johnston,  J.  Stoddard: 
Kentucky  (Vol.  IX.  of  Confederate  Military  History,  Atlanta,  1899); 
Memorial  History  of  Louisville  (2  vols.,  1896);  Smith,  Z.  F.:  History  of 
Kentucky  (1  vol.,  1901). 

J.  STODDARD  JOHNSTON, 

Formerly  Associate  Editor  Louisville  Courier-Journal;  author 
of  Confederate  Hittory  of  Kentucky. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION, 
1865-1909. 

Conditions  at  the  Close  of  the  War. 

The  state  of  Kentucky,  being  the  frontier  of 
loyalty,  was  swept  by  Confederate  and  Union  armies, 
and  throughout  the  war  was  subject  to  formidable 
southern  raids  and  the  continued  depredations  of 
guerrillas.  The  devastation  had  gone  far  and  much 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         305 

of  the  productive  labor  had  been  driven  from  the 
state. 

From  the  close  of  the  period  of  neutrality,  Ken- 
tucky was  unhesitatingly  committed  to  the  Union 
cause.  It  is  true  there  were  many  Confederate 
homes  within  its  borders  and  not  a  little  sentiment 
adverse  to  the  Union,  but  the  great  current  of  Ken- 
tucky life  from  the  moment  of  this  public  declaration 
never  failed  in  the  most  unconditional  Unionism. 

Only  a  decade  and  a  half  preceding  the  close  of 
the  war,  the  state  had  provided  for  the  placing  of  a 
block  of  Kentucky  marble  in  the  Washington  Monu- 
ment to  bear  the  inscription,  "  Under  the  auspices 
of  Heaven  and  the  precepts  of  Washington,  Ken- 
tucky will  be  the  last  state  to  give  up  the  Union," 
and  she  meant  it  with  all  her  heart. 

Unreservedly  committed  to  the  Union,  Kentucky 
was  nevertheless  strongly  pro-slavery  in  sentiment 
and  unswerving  in  her  devotion  to  the  idea  of  local 
self-government.  The  closing  years  of  the  war  were 
marked  by  a  number  of  grievances,  the  first  of 
which  was  the  enlistment  of  negro  troops.  The 
proud  spirit  of  the  Kentuckian  resented  this  as  an 
implication  that  he  could  not  do  his  part  for  the 
nation  without  calling  upon  the  negroes.  In  a 
masterly  manner  Lincoln  answered  the  objection 
against  the  enlistment  of  negro  troops,  and  though 
he  did  not  satisfy  all  minds,  the  matter  was  accepted 
in  a  tolerant  spirit. 

There  was  another  cause  for  dissatisfaction.  The 
negroes  of  loyal  men  were  set  free  by  the  process 
of  enlistment,  not  only  to  furnish  Kentucky's  quota 
of  troops,  but  to  fill  the  lists  from  other  states.  Such 
deprivation  of  property  was  pretty  hard  to  bear. 
The  third  cause  was  found  in  the  restrictions  and 
demands  of  the  commanders  in  charge  of  the 
National  troops  in  the  state. 

Vol.  1—20 


306  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  war  the  Confederacy 
undertook  to  establish  a  provincial  government 
within  the  state,  which  beat  a  hasty  retreat  from 
Frankfort  within  a  few  hours  after  the  inauguration 
of  its  officers.  This  action,  however,  was  made  a 
basis  for  continued  claims  on  Kentucky  by  the  Con- 
federate government.  In  the  unsettled  conditions 
of  a  border  state,  plundering  guerrillas  and  partisan 
rangers  found  large  opportunity  to  ply  their  nefa- 
rious work  without  those  restrictions  which  would 
have  existed  wholly  within  Confederate  or  Union 
lines. 

Losses  from  the  war  may  be  briefly  characterized 
as  those  due  to  the  destruction  of  life  and  property, 
and  the  loss  of  the  slaves.  Since  Kentucky  was  used 
as  the  foraging  ground  of  such  Southern  troops  as 
were  free  to  make  raids;  as  the  licensed  and  ap- 
proved territory  of  the  guerrillas;  as  the  scene  of 
several  battles ;  since  the  stock  and  grain  were  used 
on  the  ground  or  carried  off  for  supplies;  since 
houses  and  barns  were  burned,  bridges  destroyed, 
roads  torn  up,  there  is  no  question  that  the  devasta- 
tion was  both  serious  and  expensive.  It  would  take 
years  to  make  good  the  loss  of  even  the  slaves  them- 
selves. These  were  valued  at  $107,000,000  in  1860 ; 
$54,000,000  in  1863,  decreasing  to  $34,000,000  in  1864. 

Besides,  when  the  war  had  closed,  many  a  soldier 
from  each  of  the  armies  returned  to  find  his  home 
destroyed,  his  business  gone,  and  his  place  in  the 
world  all  to  be  made  again.  Thousands  of  these 
gathered  the  little  of  their  property  that  could  be 
found,  sold  their  land  for  what  it  would  bring,  and 
sought  new  homes  in  the  great  west.  Viewed  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  state  welfare,  this  large  emi- 
gration of  some  of  the  choicest  elements  of  popula- 
tion was  a  serious  loss. 

Kentucky  promptly  and  generously  paid  nearly 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         307 

$1,000,000  for  maintaining  troops  for  local  and  state 
defense.  For  supplies  and  expenses  met  in  direct 
aid  of  the  Federal  government,  Kentucky  expended 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Union  during  the  war 
$3,268,224.  Of  this  sum  there  had  been  refunded 
to  the  state  by  the  close  of  1865  the  amount  of 
$1,109,230,  leaving  a  balance  in  favor  of  the  state 
of  $2,159,994.  Deducting  $713,965,  the  state's  pro- 
portion of  the  direct  tax  laid  by  Act  of  Congress  in 
1861,  the  total  balance  remaining  due  against  the 
United  States  was  $1,553,353.  From  time  to  time 
payments  were  made,  but  the  war  claim  was  a  favor- 
ite topic  with  the  governors  in  their  messages  to 
the  legislature,  and  twelve  years  after  the  war 
closed,  Governor  McCreary  informs  the  legislature 
that  he  is  using  every  energy  to  collect  from  the 
National  government  $397,587.27,  the  sum  yet  due. 
The  delay  was  in  part  caused  by  the  cumbersome 
machinery  necessary  for  the  consideration  of  the 
claims,  and  in  part  by  the  need  of  thorough  examina- 
tion, in  order  that  no  unjust  claim  might  be  allowed. 
Kentucky's  financial  conscience  was  never  better 
than  in  the  war  period.  Her  people,  trained  in  the 
long  struggle  with  banks  and  with  the  many  prob- 
lems of  local  finance,  had  come  at  last  to  understand 
the  importance  of  prompt  and  willing  payment  for 
themselves  and  for  others. 

Interpretation  of  the  Constitution  and  Abolition  of  Slavery. 

Through  all  the  pioneer  history  the  state  had 
stood  strongly  for  local  self-government.  The  reso- 
lutions of  1798  were  only  an  extreme  statement  of 
that  principle.  Holding  such  views  it  was  natural 
that  the  people  should  chafe  under  the  restrictions 
of  martial  law,  which  was  necessary  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  war.  The  general  government  early- 
recognized  the  peculiar  spirit  of  the  state  and  so  far 


308  THE  HISTOBY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

as  possible  sent  as  commanders  Kentuekians  who 
understood  the  people.  But  the  citizens  were  slow 
to  see  that  matters  cannot  be  administered  in  war 
as  in  peace,  so  they  continued  to  struggle  and  chafe 
against  necessary  military  restrictions.  This  grew 
worse  in  the  last  days  of  the  war  and  for  months 
following  there  was  continual  wrangle  and  conten- 
tion for  larger  civil  rights. 

To-day  under  an  established  system  of  govern- 
ment and  with  mostly  fixed  conditions  of  labor,  we 
are  likely  to  make  too  little  allowance  for  the  hard- 
ships imposed  by  the  unsettled  conditions  of  the 
war  period;  the  breaking  up  of  the  old  system  of 
labor  and  the  necessity  of  making  all  things  new. 
The  people  recognized  that  slavery  was  dead,  but 
comforted  their  hearts  with  the  belief  that  it  was 
a  right  granted  them  under  the  constitution,  and 
only  to  be  put  away  by  their  own  choice.  Governor 
Bramlette,  strong  for  the  Union  and  vigorous  in  his 
administration,  urged  the  adoption  of  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment  by  the  legislature  as  the  shortest  and 
most  direct  way  of  disposing  of  the  subject.  In  the 
refusal  of  the  legislature  one  may  find  another  proof 
that  Kentucky  was  still  distinctly  pro-slavery. 
Slavery  had  existed  in  the  border  states  in  a  milder 
form  than  that  found  in  the  far  South.  In  many 
cases  there  was  a  wholesome  affection  between  the 
slave  and  the  master,  which  the  people  had  come 
to  regard  as  a  desirable  end. 

To  many  of  the  earnest  and  energetic  people  of 
the  North  this  was  a  condition  either  not  seen  or  not 
understood,  and  filled  with  suspicion  and  distrust 
of  the  South,  they  sought  to  establish  a  general 
means  of  protecting  the  negro  in  his  new  freedom. 
To  this  end  the  Freedman's  Bureau  was  established 
and  extended  to  the  state.  The  organization  excited 
great  hostility  in  Kentucky.  The  governor  urged 


KENTUCKY  IX  THE  XEW  NATION.         309 

the  local  authorities  to  resist  promptly  and  in  legal 
form  every  act  of  the  Bureau,  declaring  that  the 
institution  was  utterly  unnecessary,  and  that  the 
whole  population,  being  now  free,  had  under  the 
laws  security  for  life  and  property.  Congress  had 
passed  an  act  setting  free  the  wives  and  children  of 
negro  slaves  who  enlisted  in  the  army  from  the  day 
of  enlistment.  Under  this  act  the  Bureau  required 
former  masters  to  make  full  payment  to  these 
negroes  for  the  services  of  their  wives  and  children 
from  the  date  of  the  enlistment  of  the  husband  and 
father.  This  interpretation  of  the  law  was  clearly 
unconstitutional,  as  it  deprived  the  citizens  of  loyal 
states  of  property  without  remuneration.  Suits 
brought  in  the  courts  to  recover  on  these  grounds 
failed  of  collection  but  did  result  in  serious  irrita- 
tion, and  intensified  the  strained  relations  already 
in  many  cases  existing  between  the  former  slaves 
and  their  masters.  Besides,  such  payment  was  often 
an  economic  impossibility.  Fields  left  untilled 
throughout  the  war  had  grown  up  in  weeds  and 
brambles ;  houses  and  barns  had  been  burned ;  stock 
driven  away;  and  the  whole  territory  swept  by  the 
besom  of  destruction.  There  was  no  money  with 
which  to  pay.  It  was  all  the  people  could  do  to  keep 
body  and  soul  together  and  to  look  out  upon  the 
world  without  debt  waiting  till  peace  should  come. 
To  secure  relief  from  the  demands  of  the  military 
officers  and  the  exactions  of  the  Bureau,  petitions 
and  special  messengers  were  sent  to  "Washington.  The 
more  objectionable  military  officers  were  removed, 
but  the  Freedman's  Bureau  was  sustained  in  the 
state  until  1873. 

Peace  and  Development. 

A  spirit  of  true  fraternity  characterized  the  feel- 
ing in  Kentucky,  and  after  the  announcement  of 
peace  the  legislature  soon  repealed  the  law  of  ex- 


310  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

patriation  which  stood  against  all  citizens  of  the 
state  who  had  cast  their  fortunes  in  with  the  Con- 
federacy. Men  came  home  by  thousands  and  at 
once  set  themselves  to  readjusting  the  old  systems. 
Neighbors  and  brothers  from  opposite  sides  in  the 
war  took  up  the  life  in  their  communities.  Brave 
men  always  respect  brave  men,  and  the  citizens  of 
Kentucky  had  found  in  their  opponents  in  both 
armies  brave  and  true  men.  The  foretime  soldiers 
adapted  themselves  to  the  new  conditions  and  long 
before  the  spirit  of  freedom  and  forgiveness  was 
ascendant  in  other  parts  of  the  South,  the  barriers 
were  down  and  men  recently  enemies  became  friends 
in  old  Kentucky. 

A  new  system  of  labor  had  to  be  established.  The 
colonel  from  the  defeated  army,  who  had  never  done 
a  day's  work  in  his  life,  came  home  and  began  to 
plow  with  his  saddle  horse  and  a  mule.  The  young 
lieutenant,  who  had  been  in  the  Northern  army, 
reared  as  a  child  of  ease  and  comfort  but  now  only 
a  little  more  prosperous  than  his  Confederate  neigh- 
bor, guided  the  plow  behind  a  team  of  carriage 
horses.  Some  negroes  were  hired  and  some  con- 
tinued to  live  with  former  masters,  all  building  new 
homes  or  restoring  the  old. 

The  rich  resources  of  the  state  were  recognized  at 
the  close  of  the  war  as  never  before.  The  legislature 
was  called  upon  to  incorporate  numerous  companies 
for  mining,  manufacturing,  oil  prospecting  and 
other  industries.  New  homes  were  established  and 
there  was  real  growth.  Still  it  was  soon  apparent 
that  with  the  inflated  prices  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
men  had  over-rated  the  money  which  they  could 
command,  and  many  a  good  enterprise  undertaken 
in  hope  was  compelled  to  languish  for  years  for 
want  of  funds.  Thus  there  arose  in  the  state  a 
period  of  apathy. 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         311 
The  Period  of  Apathy. 

With  many  things  to  be  done  and  slender  re- 
sources for  the  doing  of  them,  what  wonder  if  the 
citizens  sometimes  became  discouraged  and  accepted 
things  as  they  were  instead  of  as  they  should  be. 
Many  of  the  owners  of  old  plantations  who  were 
involved  in  debt  sold  their  holdings  for  a  song  and 
went  to  other  states  to  make  new  homes.  Men  from 
the  mountains  and  from  other  states  came  to  estab- 
lish themselves  in  the  bluegrass  region.  Money  was 
in  great  demand  and  for  a  time  the  meaning  of 
"land  poor"  was  experienced  among  the  people  as 
never  before  in  the  history  of  the  state. 

But  when  all  who  could  had  returned,  it  was  not 
the  old  Kentucky.  There  was  a  new  regime.  Nothing 
could  call  to  their  places  again  the  leaders  of  Ken- 
tucky life  who  slept  in  soldiers'  graves;  and  many 
a  man  who  did  return  now  found  his  place  gone,  and 
the  new  condition  was  so  hard  to  bear  that  he  turned 
his  face  toward  other  scenes.  Bluegrass  farms  that 
had  teemed  with  life  and  abounded  with  the  hospi- 
tality which  made  the  region  famous  were  now  sold 
out  in  small  parcels  and  a  new  order  of  rural  life 
began.  But  there  were  other  causes  of  delay. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  turbulent  spirits  from 
both  armies  sought  the  border  states,  and  Kentucky 
suffered  most.  Guerrilla  bands  went  on  their  raids 
into  every  part  of  the  commonwealth  to  steal,  to 
burn,  or  to  kill,  as  whim  or  necessity  seemed  to 
impel.  At  one  time  the  pay  train  on  the  Louisville 
and  Nashville  Eailroad  was  plundered  by  a  gang  of 
robbers  who  made  their  escape  with  nearly  $15,000. 
An  organized  body  of  men  operated  in  Marion,  Boyd 
and  Mercer  counties  under  the  name  of  Regulators, 
broke  open  jails,  executed  criminals,  and  went  so 
far  as  to  publish  their  threats  of  punishment  in  the 
newspapers.  Their  violence  was  directed  not  only 


312  THE  HISTOKY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

against  real  offenders  in  the  hands  of  the  law,  but 
against  all  who  provoked  their  resentment.  They 
even  warned  the  governor  of  the  state  to  issue  no 
more  proclamations  against  them  on  pain  of  their 
vengeance.  With  the  approval  of  the  United  States 
government,  a  plan  was  put  in  operation  to  enlist 
10,000  troops  to  protect  the  state.  A  part  of  these 
were  enrolled,  but  the  plan  did  not  prove  satisfac- 
tory. The  state  was  relieved  from  martial  law  and 
came  to  depend  upon  the  militia  and  the  local  police. 
The  courts  were  opened  for  the  redress  of  griev- 
ances, but  disorder  in  one  form  or  another  was 
prevalent  until  1873. 

In  cases  involving  controversies  between  members 
of  their  own  race,  the  negroes  had  long  been  recog- 
nized in  the  courts.  But  the  unwholesome  activity 
of  the  Freedman's  Bureau  caused  the  legislature 
to  withhold  legal  sanction  from  the  testimony  of  the 
negro  during  the  period  of  the  Bureau's  occupancy 
of  the  state,  and  he  was  not  generally  admitted  as 
a  witness.  At  once  after  the  removal  of  the  Bureau, 
a  law  was  passed  bestowing  upon  him  the  full  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  courts. 

Immediately  following  the  war,  the  Regulators 
mentioned  in  a  previous  paragraph  began  to  appear 
as  guardians  of  the  public  welfare  and  promoters 
of  law  and  order.  Great  companies  of  freedmen 
gathered  in  the  vicinity  of  the  towns  without  ade- 
quate means  of  support,  and  petty  thieving  became 
general.  The  negroes  had  very  hazy  ideas  of  the 
rights  of  property,  and  long  accustomed  to  regard 
themselves  as  immediately  identified  with  some  par- 
ticular plantation,  found  it  easy  to  go  to  the  cribs 
and  hen-roosts  of  their  neighbors  to  help  themselves. 
To  suppress  the  disorders  thus  arising,  the  Regu- 
lators were  organized.  Later  the  Ku  Klux  arose 
and  doubtless  did  much  to  rid  the  country  of  objec- 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         313 

tionable  characters,  but  as  with  all  organizations  for 
government  and  correction  beyond  the  law,  the  man- 
agement soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  men  who  used  it 
chiefly  to  gratify  personal  spite  and  to  wreak  long- 
delayed  vengeance.  The  arm  of  the  law  was  para- 
lyzed and  the  preservation  of  order  fell  into  the 
hands  of  ruffians  who  maintained  a  reign  of  terror 
throughout  the  whole  region.  This  was  suffered 
until  public  opinion  arose  to  the  point  which  swept 
these  organizations  aside  and  again  placed  the 
government  in  the  hands  of  the  civil  authorities. 
But  in  these  dark  hours  the  state  had  been  gaining 
strength  and  it  was  now  ready  for  new  and  better 
things. 

A  New  Awakening. 

The  old  system  of  labor  was  gone.  One  makeshift 
and  then  another  had  been  tried,  but  soon  the  leaders 
of  the  state  life  began  to  plead  for  immigration,  and 
references  to  it  found  place  in  the  messages  of  suc- 
ceeding governors.  According  to  the  governor's 
message  to  the  legislature  in  1876,  Kentucky  had 
a  population  of  only  thirty-three  people  to  the  square 
mile.  Of  the  291,297  immigrants  that  came  to  the 
United  States  in  that  year,  34,000  went  to  Illinois, 
30,000  to  Pennsylvania,  10,000  to  Ohio,  3,700  to 
Indiana  and  but  800  to  Kentucky.  In  1880  the 
Bureau  of  Immigration  was  established.  The  next 
year  was  marked  by  the  coming  of  a  Swiss  colony 
to  southeastern  Kentucky,  with  headquarters  at 
Bernstadt,  where  a  prosperous  settlement  was  estab- 
lished. In  1882  the  secretary  of  the  Department  of 
Immigration  went  to  Europe  and  his  visit  resulted 
in  bringing  a  number  of  colonists  to  the  state.  But 
interest  in  immigration  proved  to  be  of  short  dura- 
tion, and  even  to-day  but  a  proportionally  small 
number  of  foreigners  are  found  in  Kentucky,  and 
these  chiefly  in  the  cities  and  towns.  But  Ken- 


314  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

tucky,  always  blessed  with  a  fecund  population,  has 
greatly  increased  in  numbers  and  sent  thousands 
of  sons  and  daughters  to  populate  new  states.  By 
the  census  of  1890  more  than  400,000  were  reported 
as  natives  of  Kentucky  settled  in  nearby  states. 

The  Negro  To-day. 

To-day  many  negroes  are  doing  well.  They  have 
bought  land  and  have  established  homes  where  they 
live  in  rude  comfort  and  abundance,  and  not  a  few 
of  them  in  the  midst  of  real  culture.  But  by  far  the 
larger  number  hold  little  property.  The  old  days 
of  general  manual  labor  for  the  negro  have  very 
largely  passed  away.  Thousands  have  crowded  to 
the  cities,  where  under  Kentucky's  generous  law 
they  are  educated  in  their  own  schools,  the  money 
being  collected  on  the  total  taxable  property  and 
distributed,  not  in  accordance  with  the  amount  the 
negro  pays,  but  in  proportion  to  the  population.  In 
some  of  the  cities  there  are  lawyers,  doctors  and 
other  professional  men  who  are  making  an  excellent 
record  for  themselves,  but  the  masses  of  the  people 
still  have  a  long  road  to  travel  in  order  to  arrive  at 
the  degree  of  excellence  which  their  best  friends 
wish  for  them.  In  the  old  days  there  was  at  every 
crossroads  a  blacksmith  shop  with  negroes  as  work- 
ers. To-day  these  shops  are  fewer  and  are  manned 
almost  entirely  by  white  workmen.  In  the  old  days 
the  stacking  of  the  wheat  and  the  more  skilled  parts 
of  the  farm  labor  were  done  by  negroes.  The  young 
negro  has  not  followed  in  his  father's  footsteps  in 
these  attainments,  and  though  he  is  an  excellent 
waiter  and  often  a  useful  man  in  the  town,  he  does 
not  aspire  to  efficiency  in  rural  life.  A  musical  cen- 
sus taken  by  the  colored  school  superintendent  of 
one  of  the  cities  resulted  in  the  finding  of  about 
$40,000  worth  of  musical  instruments  in  the  hands 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         315 

of  negroes,  a  sum  that  would  have  been  sufficient  to 
start  a  prosperous  negro  bank. 

The  Mountain  Region, 

In  the  early  eighties  the  wealth  of  the  mountains 
began  to  be  recognized,  and  numerous  companies 
were  organized,  chiefly  from  beyond  the  borders  of 
the  state,  to  exploit  timber  and  minerals.  Large 
tracts  of  native  forests  were  purchased  by  timber 
companies  and  various  syndicates  bought  the  land 
outright  or  purchased  the  mineral  right  to  thousands 
of  acres  underlaid  by  beds  of  coal.  The  railroads 
began  to  thread  their  way  up  the  river  valleys  and 
into  mountain  coves,  here  and  there  piercing  a  ridge 
by  a  tunnel,  but  mainly  winding  in  and  out  through 
the  narrow  valleys.  The  Louisville  and  Nashville 
Railroad,  with  one  great  branch  from  Louisville  to 
Nashville,  soon  determined  to  make  connections 
from  Cincinnati  southward  along  the  foothills  of 
the  Cumberland  and  through  the  mountains  to  Knox- 
ville,  and  so  leading  on  to  Atlanta.  The  Southern 
Railroad,  occupying  an  admirable  location  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  state,  pressed  into  the  con- 
tested region  adjacent  to  its  lines,  and  many  a  secret 
midnight  survey  to  lay  out  a  roadway  was  made  by 
the  engineering  corps  of  the  two  roads.  There  are 
scarcely  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  railroad  build- 
ing more  striking  and  dramatic  incidents  than  those 
participated  in  by  the  men  who  located  the  branch 
lines  tributary  to  these  two  systems. 

Wherever  a  railroad  has  been  opened,  a  new 
period  of  prosperity  soon  declares  itself.  Little 
towns  spring  up,  and  at  the  junctions  boom  towns 
are  sometimes  started.  Middlesboro,  Kentucky, 
benefited  in  this  way,  and  was  planned  as  the  great 
metropolis  of  the  mountains.  But  its  promoters 
looked  forward  to  larger  things  than  they  could 


316  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

accomplish,  and  the  boom  burst.  But  gradually  the 
little  city  in  the  mountains  gathered  strength  and 
went  on  toward  prosperity,  and  for  the  last  decade 
has  been  marked  by  a  wholesome  growth  which 
promises  well  for  the  future.  Branch  roads  are  now 
running  into  many  of  the  mountain  coves.  The 
roads  leading  out  from  Louisville  like  so  many  fin- 
gers of  a  great  hand  are  spreading  the  trade  to  the 
mountain  region  of  the  south  and  east  and  bringing 
groaning  loads  of  coal  and  timber  back  to  exchange 
for  the  manufactures  and  the  food  supplies  of  the 
great  Mississippi  Valley.  By  its  energy  and  enter- 
prise, Louisville  has  won  its  right  to  be  called  the 
gateway  of  the  South.  In  1872  a  charter  was  grant- 
ed the  Queen  and  Crescent  Railroad  from  Cincinnati 
to  Chattanooga,  and  Cincinnati's  merchants  had 
good  hope  that  they  would  capture  the  trade  of  the 
South.  The  road  does  indeed  contribute  greatly  to 
the  commercial  development  of  the  South  and  bene- 
fited the  business  of  Cincinnati,  but  the  advantage 
of  the  southern  trade  still  lies  with  Louisville. 

The  timber  products  amounted  in  1907  to  $14,539,- 
000.  These  figures  represent  the  handlings  of  the 
larger  companies,  but  necessarily  do  not  include 
many  small  purchases  and  much  of  the  timber  de- 
voted to  domestic  use.  A  large  share  of  the  state 
has  been  cut  over  by  lumber  companies,  but  here 
and  there  in  regions  still  inaccessible  by  railroad  or 
by  the  larger  streams  is  found  the  primeval  forest. 

Moral  and  Religious  Growth. 

Any  record  of  Kentucky  life  which  has  failed  to 
take  note  of  the  churches  must  be  sadly  lacking. 
The  leading  denomination  is  the  Baptist.  It  was  the 
first  on  the  ground  in  the  settlement  of  the  state  and 
has  carried  on  a  vigorous  work  to  the  present  time. 
The  denomination  has  undergone  many  changes,  and 


KENTUCKY  IX  THE  NEW  NATION.          317 

particularly  in  eastern  Kentucky,  is  split  up  into 
a  number  of  different  divisions,  some  of  them  very 
primitive  in  their  conceptions.  The  Baptists  are 
closely  followed  in  numbers  by  the  Methodists, 
Disciples  of  Christ  and  Presbyterians,  besides  a 
number  of  other  leading  denominations.  The  state 
has  throughout  its  history  been  marked  by  a  strong 
devotion  to  religious  and  moral  ideas  with  much 
emphasis  upon  church  organization  and  sectarian 
beliefs. 

One  of  the  first  Bible  Societies  in  the  United 
States  was  organized  in  Lexington  in  1810.  The 
Society  carried  on  an  extensive  work  and  distributed 
many  Bibles  printed  in  Lexington. 

The  Y.M.C.A.  was  organized  in  a  pioneer  fashion 
in  the  earlier  days  of  Association  work  in  the  United 
States.  The  many  branches  of  the  association  grew 
to  such  an  extent  that  supervision  through  the  volun- 
teer service  of  members  of  the  state  and  national 
committee  proved  inadequate,  so  in  1889  provision 
was  made  for  a  state  secretary,  and  Mr.  Henry  E. 
Rosevear  for  nineteen  consecutive  years  filled  the 
office.  From  a  body  of  fifteen  organizations  and  a 
membership  of  1,276,  the  Kentucky  work  has  grown 
to  number  fifty- three  organizations  with  a  total 
membership  of  8,000  men.  Kentucky  has  been  a 
leader  in  county  and  railroad  work,  besides  giving 
adequate  attention  to  the  work  of  the  city  associa- 
tions and  of  the  colleges.  These  were  nineteen  years 
of  hard  work  and  much  accomplishment.  On  the 
retirement  of  Mr.  Rosevear,  Mr.  Philo  C.  Dix,  one 
of  the  assistant  state  secretaries,  was  chosen  as  his 
successor. 

The  Era  of  Progress. 

Beginning  with  1876,  Kentucky  has  been  repre- 
«?ented  at  the  great  Fairs  of  the  country.  The  ex- 
hibit at  the  Centennial  was  mainly  of  the  minerals 


318  THE  HISTOEY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

and  natural  products  of  the  state,  and  was  provided 
for  by  a  fund  of  $30,000  raised  chiefly  by  the  leading 
women  of  the  commonwealth.  Kentucky  had  a  very 
satisfactory  exhibit  at  the  Columbian  Exposition  in 
1893,  adding  to  the  mineral  and  agricultural  prod- 
ucts an  extensive  showing  of  choice  livestock.  In 
1904  the  exhibit  at  St.  Louis  surpassed  all  previous 
records,  and  did  high  credit  to  Kentucky's  rank 
among  the  agricultural  states  of  the  Union.  Besides 
the  large  mineral  and  agricultural  supplies,  the 
extensive  exhibit  of  grains  and  tobacco,  Kentucky 
had  an  unusually  fine  display  of  livestock. 

In  1890  steps  were  taken  toward  the  preparation 
of  a  new  constitution,  which  was  finally  adopted  by 
the  people  in  September,  1891.  It  provided  for  a 
distinct  advance  in  the  problems  of  government  and 
was  particularly  happy  in  making  an  end  of  lot- 
teries, which  had  for  a  long  time  been  a  burden  to 
the  state.  Throughout  its  history,  Kentucky  has  not 
been  particularly  favorable  to  private  corporations, 
but  with  the  organization  necessary  to  develop  the 
mineral  resources  and  with  the  trend  toward  city 
life,  there  has  grown  up  a  new  sense  of  the  value  of 
this  form  of  organization  to  the  development  of 
wealth  in  the  state,  and  a  more  favorable  attitude 
is  already  apparent. 

As  in  other  states,  there  are  doubtless  a  number 
of  citizens  not  yet  in  the  penitentiary  who  ought  to 
be  there,  but  Kentucky  has  in  that  institution  even 
a  larger  proportion  than  in  many  states  would  be 
so  sentenced.  Under  the  state  law,  a  culprit  may 
be  convicted  of  grand  larceny  for  stealing  a  hog  of 
the  value  of  four  dollars,  for  stealing  any  kind  of 
a  horse,  jack  or  jeannette,  and  for  taking  money 
amounting  to  twenty  dollars  or  more.  In  many  of 
the  states,  persons  convicted  of  these  violations  of 
the  law  would  never  reach  the  penitentiary,  but 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         319 

would  be  sentenced  to  confinement  in  the  county 
jails. 

"It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there  is  a  great  deal 
of  ordinary  homicide  in  Kentucky.  It  is  not  a  new 
feature  of  the  life  of  the  state,  or  of  the  race  to 
which  its  people  belong."  Those  who  made  the  state 
in  the  olden  days  were  not  gentle-natured,  but 
dowered  with  the  vigor  and  the  "brutal  English 
stuff"  which  "has  given  their  kindred  the  control 
of  the  world."  It  is  true  nevertheless  that  this 
people  have  set  a  low  value  upon  human  life,  a  thing 
always  true  when  they  live  near  to  the  soil,  and  some- 
times true  when  other  goods  are  placed  relatively 
high.  But  excusing  it  as  we  may  and  making  all 
due  allowance  for  the  baneful  effects  of  the  war  and 
the  period  of  lawlessness  which  followed  thereafter, 
for  the  penalty  of  Kentucky's  location  as  a  border 
state — yes,  even  justly  attributing  it  partly  to  the 
independence  of  the  Kentuckian  and  his  impatience 
under  unjust  criticism,  it  still  remains  true  that  this 
attitude  of  the  public  mind  is  a  most  serious  blot 
on  the  character  of  the  people  and  responsible  to 
a  greater  degree  than  any  other  cause  for  the  criti- 
cism and  censure  which  has  been  bestowed  upon 
Kentucky  by  her  sister  states.  Already  her  more 
thoughtful  citizens  are  taking  strong  ground  against 
this  feeling,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  old  spirit 
of  independence,  personal  bravery  and  high  sense 
of  honor  may  not  be  preserved  to  the  Kentucky 
character  while  there  is  a  growing  sense  of  the  sa- 
credness  of  human  life  and  a  material  increase  in 
the  safety  of  the  people. 

The  feud  is  another  painful  feature  of  Kentucky 
life  which  has  done  much  to  place  an  undeserved 
stain  upon  the  state  as  a  whole.  The  civil  power 
had  a  long  struggle  after  the  war  to  establish  its 
ascendency.  Judge  Lilly  wrote  as  follows :  "In  1888 


320  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

I  failed  to  hold  the  regular  fall  terms  of  Letcher  and 
Knott  Circuit  Courts  and  in  1889  the  regular  fall 
terms  of  the  Perry  and  Knott  Circuit  Courts.  The 
counties  of  Knott  and  Perry  are  absolutely  domi- 
nated and  terrorized  by  savage  and  lawless  bands. 
All  respect  for  justice  and  the  peaceful  and  orderly 
administration  of  the  law  is  not  only  set  at  defiance, 
but  the  most  high-handed  outrages  are  perpetrated 
in  the  presence  of  the  Court  and  with  the  purpose 
and  object  of  terrorizing  and  intimidating  the 
officers  of  justice.  At  the  peril  of  my  life,  frequently 
narrowly  escaping  death,  I  have  held  the  Circuit 
Courts  in  these  counties.  Before  the  fall  term  for 
1888  in  these  counties  came  on,  I  had  knowledge  of 
feuds  existing  in  both  the  counties  of  Knott  and 
Perry  of  the  most  deadly  and  malignant  character. 
Hostile  bands  in  these  two  counties  constantly 
menaced  each  other.  Deadly  conflicts  between  the 
opposing  factions  were  of  almost  daily  occurrence. 
The  Circuit  Court  drew  together  at  the  Court  House 
the  factions  from  all  sections  of  the  county,  and 
collisions  with  unnecessary  fatal  and  demoralizing 
results  were  inevitable." 

The  feeble  hold  of  the  civil  power  in  the  seven 
years  following  the  war  had  doubtless  much  to  do 
in  developing  among  the  people  the  spirit  of  redress- 
ing their  own  wrongs,  but  the  feud  is  simply  another 
manifestation  of  that  spirit  which  required  every 
man  in  the  day  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  carry  his  side 
arms  and  to  right  his  personal  wrongs  and  any 
others  with  which  he  chose  to  concern  himself.  The 
feud  often  arises  in  a  most  trivial  way  from  some 
grievance  reflecting  upon  the  honor,  personal  char- 
acter or  prowess  of  one  of  the  leaders  or  of  his 
trusted  lieutenants.  The  contests  have  rarely  re- 
sulted either  in  the  condition  of  lawlessness  or  the 
number  of  deaths  which  the  newspapers  have  de- 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         321 

lighted  to  attribute  to  them.  Frequently  in  a  feud 
extending  over  several  years  and  involving  a  large 
share  of  the  citizens  of  a  county  on  one  side  or  the 
other,  the  deaths  would  number  but  a  few  men.  It 
is  one  of  the  remarkable  characteristics  of  these 
conflicts  that  the  lives  and  property  of  strangers 
who  have  been  traveling  through  the  country  have 
been  uniformly  respected,  and  even  local  citizens 
who  may  be  able  to  keep  out  of  the  difficulty  have 
been  safe  from  the  vengeance  of  both  parties  and 
have  suffered  only  when  they  came  between  two  of 
the  contestants  engaged  in  an  encounter.  Ken- 
tucky's feuds  have  occurred  for  the  most  part  in 
the  mountain  region,  and  the  leader  on  one  side  or 
the  other,  established  in  his  mountain  fastness, 
keeps  about  him  his  retainers  whom  he  has  sup- 
ported and  furnished  with  arms.  Many  of  the 
features  both  of  the  preparation  and  of  the  en- 
counter remind  one  of  the  days  of  Cedric  the  Saxon. 
The  hate  aroused  by  the  feud  is  implacable,  and  the 
feud  usually  continues  until  the  adherents  on  one 
side  or  the  other  are  killed  off  or  move  to  some 
other  state.  One  of  the  oldest  and  most  serious  of 
these  was  that  which  occurred  in  Breathitt  county, 
giving  to  the  shire  the  name  of  "Bloody  Breathitt," 
and  known  as  the  Hargis-Marcum  feud.  The  Hargis 
clan  was  strong  and  well  organized  and  its  leader, 
Judge  James  Hareris,  was  long  an  important  factor 
in  the  counsels  of  his  party  in  the  state.  This  feud 
was  marked  by  a  number  of  assassinations,  the  last 
being  that  of  Dr.  B.  D.  Cox,  a  prominent  opponent 
of  Judge  Hargis  in  state  politics.  The  murder  took 
place  in  1903.  Three  times  was  Judge  Hargis  tried 
on  the  charge  of  complicity  in  the  assassination  of 
his  opponents,  and  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Cox  it  was 
decided  that  the  trial  could  not  be  carried  on  impar- 
tially in  Breathitt  county,  hence  proceedings  were 

Vol.  l-Jl. 


322  THE  HISTOKY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

moved  to  Sandy  Hook,  Eliot  county,  a  hamlet  in  the 
mountains  inaccessible  by  telegraph,  telephone  or 
railroad.  At  the  trial,  which  was  marked  by  many 
sensational  incidents,  Judge  Hargis  was  acquitted. 
Some  months  later,  while  in  his  own  store  at  Jack- 
son, he  was  shot  by  the  hand  of  his  own  son.  The 
general  feeling  of  the  state  is  against  feuds,  and 
the  progress  of  improvements  and  the  ascendency 
of  the  commercial  spirit  will  doubtless  put  a  termi- 
nation to  this  survival  of  Elizabethan  days. 

The  Goebel  Trial. 

In  1898  the  legislature  passed  a  bill,  known  as  the 
Goebel  Law,  which  provided  for  the  counting  of  the 
votes  by  an  election  board  and  was  looked  upon  as 
a  measure  placing  an  unfair  amount  of  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  Democrats.  Kentucky  is  naturally 
Democratic,  but  in  the  gubernatorial  election  of  1899 
the  Democrats  were  divided  on  the  question  of  free 
silver  and  greatly  handicapped  by  factions  which 
existed  in  the  party.  The  board  of  elections  orga- 
nized under  the  Goebel  Law  decided  in  favor  of 
Governor  Taylor,  the  Eepublican  candidate.  William 
S.  Goebel,  the  Democratic  candidate,  gave  notice 
that  he  would  contest  the  election.  Public  feeling 
ran  high.  The  matter  was  brought  before  the  legis- 
lature, and  with  discussion  the  civil  order  was 
imperiled,  and  when  the  time  came  for  the  con- 
sideration of  the  contest  by  the  legislature  the  public 
interest  and  attention  were  wrought  to  their  highest 
pitch.  On  Jan.  25,  1900,  a  train  bearing  between 
five  hundred  and  one  thousand  armed  men  from  the 
southern  and  eastern  part  of  the  state  rolled  into 
Frankfort.  This  heavily  armed  company  met  in  a 
peaceful  manner  and  petitioned  the  legislature  that 
the  will  of  the  people  should  be  regarded  in  the 
election  contest  then  under  consideration.  There 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         323 

was  much  bitterness,  not  a  little  boasting  and  some 
threats.  So  matters  continued  while  the  subject  was 
under  consideration  until  January  30,  when  William 
Goebel  was  shot  by  the  bullet  of  an  assassin  from 
the  State  House.  Great  excitement  prevailed  and 
the  state  at  large  was  dumbfounded.  Governor 
Taylor  placed  a  military  guard  around  the  capitol, 
and  adjourned  the  legislature  to  meet  at  London  in 
the  mountains,  declaring  that  a  state  of  insurrection 
existed.  The  Eepublicans  went  to  London,  and  the 
Democratic  members  of  the  legislature,  shut  out 
from  the  capitol  and  the  Opera  House  by  the  militia, 
at  once  prepared  a  statement  setting  forth  these 
facts  and  declaring  Goebel  and  Beckham  elected  as 
governor  and  lieutenant-governor.  This  statement 
was  signed  by  nineteen  senators  and  fifty-six  repre- 
sentatives. Mr.  Goebel 's  death  was  hourly  expected, 
but  he  was  sworn  in  as  governor.  The  Chief  Justice 
of  the  state  held  that  the  action  of  these  men  was 
valid,  and  Mr.  Beckham  took  the  oath  as  lieutenant- 
governor.  Governor  Goebel  died  on  February  3  and 
Mr.  Beckham  was  then  sworn  in  as  governor.  The 
Republicans  refused  to  give  up  the  offices.  Appli- 
cations for  injunctions  were  made  by  both  sides,  and 
finally  a  committee  of  seven  men  prepared  an  agree- 
ment by  which,  if  the  legislature  should  ratify  their 
action,  the  Eepublicans  were  to  submit  without  fur- 
ther prejudice,  with  immunity  from  charges  of  trea- 
son, usurpation  or  any  such  offenses,  and  all  parties 
were  to  unite  for  a  free  and  fair  election  law.  This 
agreement  Governor  Taylor  refused  to  sign.  The 
injunction  suits  were  then  consolidated  into  one. 
The  Circuit  Court  decided  that  the  legislature  is, 
under  the  constitution,  the  proper  tribunal  for  the 
settlement  of  such  contests,  and  the  decision  was 
affirmed  by  the  State  Court  of  Appeals.  When 
carried  by  the  Republicans  to  the  United  States 


324  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

Supreme  Court,  that  body  decided  that  it  had  no 
jurisdiction  in  the  case.  Until  this  time  there  had 
been  two  acting  governors,  but  when  the  decision 
was  made  known,  Governor  Taylor  directed  that  the 
militia  should  be  dismissed  from  the  capitol  and  that 
its  commander  should  surrender  his  office  to  Gover- 
nor Beckham's  appointee.  The  legislature  set  aside 
a  fund  of  $100,000  for  the  apprehension  and  prosecu- 
tion of  the  assassin  of  William  Goebel.  "Warrants 
were  issued  for  men  suspected  of  complicity,  and  on 
March  10  the  Grand  Jury  returned  indictments 
against  ten  men  for  participation  in  the  killing,  and 
indicted  as  accessories  before  the  fact  five  others. 
Among  these  were  Governor  Taylor,  Charles  Fin- 
ley  and  Caleb  Powers.  Taylor  and  Finley  escaped 
to  Indianapolis,  where  the  governor  of  Indiana 
refused  to  honor  a  requisition  from  the  governor  of 
Kentucky  on  the  ground  that  these  men  could  not 
have  a  fair  trial  in  that  state.  The  trial  of  Caleb 
Powers  was  begun  at  Georgetown,  July  9,  1900. 
Several  of  the  principal  witnesses  for  the  prosecu- 
tion were  among  those  who  were  accused  as  having 
been  in  the  plot  to  murder  Mr.  Goebel.  Three  times 
Mr.  Powers  was  found  guilty  with  penalty  fixed  at 
death  or  imprisonment  for  life,  and  each  time  a  new 
trial  was  granted  by  the  Court  of  Appeals.  At  the 
fourth  trial  the  jury  disagreed,  and  Caleb  Powers, 
along  with  James  Howard,  who  had  already  been 
sentenced  to  the  penitentiary,  was  finally  pardoned 
by  Governor  Willson  in  June,  1908.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  from  the  passage  of  the  Goebel 
Law  in  1898,  the  chief  issue  in  Kentucky  politics 
was  either  this  law  or  its  author,  William  Goebel. 
Probably  no  man  was  ever  loved  more  ardently  or 
hated  more  violently  than  he.  Every  question  in 
state  politics  was  viewed  in  its  relation  to  the  Goebel 
Law  or  to  Goebel.  After  his  death,  the  cause  had 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.          325 

a  martyr,  and  the  Republicans,  who  were  gaining 
a  strong  foothold  in  the  state,  were  submerged  in 
the  hopeless  and  violent  change  of  sentiment.  It 
was  felt  that  some  one  should  be  punished  for  the 
outrageous  assassination  of  Governor  Goebel.  Politi- 
cal hate  and  untoward  circumstances  pointed  toward 
Caleb  Powers,  and  this  man,  also  devotedly  loved 
or  violently  hated  in  accordance  with  the  viewpoint 
of  the  person  concerned,  though  uncondemned,  spent 
eight  years  in  the  prime  of  life  in  a  Kentucky  prison. 

Agricultural  and  Mineral  Products. 

Almost  from  the  first  of  its  history  as  a  state, 
Kentucky  has  stood  first  in  one  or  more  of  the  agri- 
cultural staples.  For  1900  the  leading  crops  were 
as  follows :  Corn,  3,300,000  acres,  93,060,000  bushels, 
valued  at  $49,322,000;  wheat,  734,000  acres,  8,808,- 
000  bushels;  oats,  192,000  acres,  3,379,000  bushels; 
potatoes,  37,000  acres,  2,960,000  bushels;  hay,  443,- 
000  acres,  598,000  tons;  tobacco,  270,000  acres, 
240,278,000  pounds,  valued  at  $24,529,000.  Both  the 
production  and  value  of  tobacco  were  then  twice  as 
great  as  that  of  North  Carolina,  the  state  ranking 
second,  and  more  than  one- third  of  the  total  for  the 
entire  country. 

In  1907,  the  coal  output  of  Kentucky  was  9,653,647 
tons,  worth  $10,425,000.  In  the  year  preceding,  pig 
iron  was  manufactured  in  the  state  to  the  value  of 
$2,077,000. 

Few  agencies  for  the  development  of  the  state 
have  been  more  fruitful  in  their  good  effects  than 
the  State  Development  Convention,  an  annual  meet- 
ing of  certain  citizens  of  Kentucky  for  promoting 
the  general  interests  of  the  commonwealth.  From 
year  to  year  this  enterprising  organization  has 
reported  on  the  needs  of  the  state,  on  the  opportu- 
nities of  various  regions,  and  the  possible  steps  in 


326  THE  HISTOKY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

financial,  educational  and  intellectual  progress.  The 
Kentuckian  has  looked  too  little  beyond  his  own 
borders  for  the  lessons  of  prosperity  and  advance- 
ment. But  the  leaders  are  alert,  and  a  thousand 
agencies  are  now  at  work  to  promote  the  progress 
of  the  state.  The  homecoming  week  in  1907  was 
warrant  enough  for  the  pride  which  the  Kentuckian 
feels  in  his  state  and  people.  Thousands  who  re- 
turned from  the  centres  of  activity  and  industry  in 
other  states  were  delighted  with  the  progress  of  the 
home  state;  and  thousands  who  remained  at  home 
were  charmed  with  the  achievements  of  the  brothers 
and  cousins  who  were  sustaining  themselves  in  other 
commonwealths. 

In  the  eighties,  turnpikes  were  laid  out  and  built 
in  many  parts  of  the  state.  These  improvements 
were  made  as  a  private  enterprise,  but  the  county 
and  state  took  a  large  amount  of  stock  to  promote 
the  building  of  these  pikes.  After  a  time  the  people 
grew  tired  of  paying  toll,  sometimes  enforced  for 
travel  over  roads  that  were  not  kept  in  good  repair. 
Many  of  the  counties  voted  to  purchase  the  toll 
roads,  but  the  officers  were  slow  and  the  people 
impatient,  and  a  series  of  outrages  against  toll-gates 
and  even  against  the  gate  keepers  was  now  inaugu- 
rated. Public  opinion  seemed  to  condone  these  out- 
rages with  the  thought  that  the  pikes  could  be 
purchased  at  a  less  figure  and  that  the  local  taxes 
would  thus  be  less.  The  governor  records  in  his 
message  in  1896  that  the  state  holdings  in  the  local 
turnpike  companies  had  sunk  from  $400,000  to 
$100,000  on  account  of  the  damages  and  dangers  to 
toll-gate  keepers.  The  outrages  continued  until  all 
the  roads  were  made  public  property. 

The  Few  Social  Consciousness. 

In  spite  of  some  disorder,  there  appeared  in  the 
early  years  of  the  Twentieth  century  many  signs  of 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         327 

a  new  social  consciousness.  The  State  Historical 
Society  was  organized  and  began  to  gather  docu- 
ments and  material  of  great  value.  Many  a  garret 
was  ransacked  for  old  journals  and  for  guns,  knives 
and  household  utensils  that  had  been  used  in  the 
pioneer  days  of  the  commonwealth.  The  Daughters 
of  the  American  Revolution  aroused  much  interest 
throughout  the  state.  Family  trees  were  studied, 
and  genealogical  investigation  became  one  of  the 
favorite  pastimes  of  not  a  few  of  the  leading  ladies 
of  the  state. 

In  1896  a  monument  was  erected  at  Bryan  Station 
Spring  to  the  memory  of  the  women  of  that  place, 
who,  as  the  inscription  records,  "faced  a  savage 
host  in  ambush  and  with  heroic  courage  and  sublime 
self-sacrifice  that  will  remain  forever  illustrious, 
obtained  from  this  spring  the  water  that  made  pos- 
sible the  successful  defense  of  that  station." 

As  land  became  more  valuable,  small  farms  were 
continually  in  demand,  many  a  farmer  tilling  his 
own  land  with  the  help  of  his  sons  and  one  or  two 
hired  men.  There  was  a  steady  increase  in  the 
number  of  small  farms  from  1870  to  1880,  and  in 
every  decade  since. 

But  on  the  larger  farms,  where  stock-raising  was 
practised,  a  regular  system  of  tenant  farming  was 
soon  inaugurated.  Men  of  skill  and  determination 
were  needed  to  care  for  the  stock  and  particularly 
in  training  the  fine  horses  for  which  Kentucky  has 
long  been  famous.  The  finest  cattle  of  the  state 
have  been  cared  for  on  these  bluegrass  farms.  The 
rural  mail  goes  everywhere,  and  the  farmer,  who 
formerly  went  to  the  county  seat  once  a  week,  may 
now  sell  his  grain  or  stock  and  order  supplies  by 
telephone  from  his  own  home. 

The  war  upon  the  trust  by  various  tobacco 
growers*  associations  began  in  1905,  continuing 


328  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

through  1907.  The  growers  of  southern  Kentucky 
were  organized  by  the  Planters'  Protective  Asso- 
ciation. Other  districts  were  organized  by  the 
American  Society  of  Equity,  such  combinations  of 
the  farmers  being  expressly  legalized  by  the  Ken- 
tucky legislature.  The  fight  has  been  most  important 
in  the  Green  River  and  Burley  districts,  where  80 
per  cent,  of  the  tobacco  product  has  been  sold  to  the 
American  Tobacco  Company.  This  organization  has 
been  accused  of  unfair  manipulation  of  the  markets 
and  unjust  discrimination  against  growers.  Through 
their  associations  the  growers  pooled  and  kept  from 
sale  part  of  the  crop  of  1905,  about  32  per  cent,  of 
the  crop  of  1906,  and  about  70  per  cent,  of  the  1907 
crop,  making  in  all  about  200,000,000  pounds  which 
is  held  for  fifteen  cents  a  pound.  The  fight  has 
resulted  in  raising  the  price  of  tobacco  to  a  marked 
degree,  but  the  whole  question  of  the  raising  and 
sale  of  this  crop  is  now  involved  in  a  difficult  and 
uncertain  controversy. 

Parties  of  men  made  demonstrations  against  inde- 
pendent tobacco  growers  who  refused  to  join  in 
opposing  the  trust  and  keeping  up  the  price  of 
tobacco.  On  Dec.  7,  1907,  five  hundred  of  the  night 
riders,  masked  and  heavily  armed,  entered  the 
village  of  Hopkinsville  and  destroyed  property 
valued  at  $200,000.  Many  shots  were  fired,  two  men 
injured  and  damage  done  to  buildings,  newspaper 
offices  and  banks.  An  appeal  for  militia  was  refused 
by  Governor  Beckham,  who  ordered  a  local  company 
of  Kentucky  troops  to  report  to  the  sheriff  for  duty. 
At  once  on  taking  his  seat,  Governor  Willson  began 
action  to  stop  the  raids.  Troops  have  been  sent 
from  place  to  place,  rewards  offered  for  the  dis- 
turbers of  the  peace;  but  all  these  agencies  have 
only  been  partially  successful.  New  conditions  have 
brought  about  new  complications.  The  Italian 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         329 

Government  appealed  to  the  Secretary  of  State  on 
account  of  the  destruction  of  the  property  of  Italian 
citizens  in  Hopkinsville,  valued  at  $15,000. 

A  wave  of  prohibition  sentiment  has  swept  over 
the  state,  and  now  out  of  425  towns,  370  are  dry ;  and 
out  of  119  counties,  94  have  prohibition;  and  out 
of  a  population  of  2,320,000,  1,500,000  inhabitants 
are  under  the  local  option  law.  This  change  may 
be  assigned  to  four  causes:  First,  there  has  been 
a  growing  sentiment  in  the  state  against  the  use  of 
liquor;  second,  the  larger  share  of  homicides  have 
been  traced  directly  to  the  use  of  liquor  and  there 
is  a  general  feeling  that  life  is  much  safer  without 
whiskey  than  with  it;  third,  the  negroes  are  more 
orderly  and  industrious  without  liquor;  and  fourth, 
the  direct  and  active  efforts  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  have  focused  this  sentiment  and  brought 
much  local  support  to  temperance  ideas  and  tem- 
perance legislation. 

Educational  Conditions. 

In  her  early  history  Kentucky  emphasized  the 
education  of  leaders.  Her  sons  were  trained  at 
private  schools  and  had  large  place  in  molding  the 
policies  of  the  nation  and  in  the  development  of  the 
rural  life  of  the  state.  In  those  days  the  common- 
school  was  regarded  as  only  fit  for  the  charity  stu- 
dent, and  it  was  carried  on  for  a  few  weeks  or 
months  every  year.  Kentucky's  system  of  education 
has  depended  chiefly  on  state  aid,  and  the  children 
in  many  quarters  have  suffered.  But  the  leaders 
in  education  for  a  decade  have  been  agitating  for 
longer  terms  of  school  and  better-trained  teachers 
and  better  equipment.  Wonderful  progress  has 
been  made.  The  school  buildings  of  the  state  are 
rreatly  improved.  Two  choice  normal  schools,  that 
for  the  eastern  district  located  at  Richmond,  Ky., 


330  THE  HISTORY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

and  that  for  the  western  district  located  at  Bowling 
Green,  are  now  offering  the  most  up-to-date  and 
thorough  training  for  the  teachers  of  the  state.  The 
legislature  of  1908  voted  $300,000  for  buildings  and 
equipment,  which  joined  with  that  granted  to  the 
State  University,  makes  the  largest  single  appro- 
priation ever  made  in  Kentucky  to  education. 

Under  act  of  Congress  in  1862,  Kentucky  was 
entitled  to  330,000  acres  of  land  for  an  agricultural 
and  mechanical  college.  The  gift  was  accepted  in 
1863,  but  was  not  available  until  two  years  later, 
when  the  state  legislature  accepted  the  proposition 
of  President  Bowman  of  Kentucky  University,  and 
the  agricultural  and  mechanical  college  became  a 
part  of  that  institution.  Thirteen  years  later  it  was 
detached  from  Kentucky  University  and  became  an 
independent  institution  at  Lexington,  with  Profes- 
sor J.  K.  Patterson  as  president.  In  1880  the  insti- 
tution was  granted  full  collegiate  powers.  Since 
then  it  has  developed  in  all  departments,  being  par- 
ticularly strong  in  agricultural  and  mechanical  lines. 
The  institution  has  grown  until  now  it  has  twenty- 
four  buildings  and  250  acres  of  land,  and  a  faculty 
of  fifty.  In  March,  1908,  its  standard  was  raised  by 
act  of  legislature  from  college  to  university  rank 
and  $200,000  was  voted  by  the  legislature  for  new 
buildings  and  equipment.  Work  below  the  fresh- 
man class  is  to  be  discontinued,  and  departments  of 
law  and  of  medicine  will  be  added  to  the  institution. 
This  youngest  sister  among  the  state  universities 
bids  fair  to  work  out  her  problems  and  to  carry  her 
part  among  the  vigorous  educational  institutions  of 
the  nation. 

Kentucky  has  long  been  noted  for  the  large  num- 
ber of  private  academies  and  small  colleges.  These 
have  been  growing  and  increasing  in  excellence  from 
year  to  year.  There  is  a  tendency  toward  the  estab- 


KENTUCKY  IN  THE  NEW  NATION.         331 

lishment  of  the  educational  work  on  better  and 
stronger  foundations.  The  leading  denominations 
are  represented  by  educational  institutions  and 
their  supporters  are  busy  in  providing  new  build- 
ings and  modern  equipment. 

Chief  among  the  institutions  for  the  application 
of  knowledge  to  industrial  life  is  the  State  Agricul- 
tural Experiment  Station,  established  at  Lexington 
in  1885.  which  has  steadily  broadened  its  scope  until 
now  it  is  concerned  with  all  the  leading  topics  of 
Kentucky  agriculture  and  saves  thousands  of  dollars 
to  the  farmers  of  the  commonwealth  by  giving  ex- 
pert advice  in  protection  against  insects,  plant 
diseases,  epidemics  among  hogs,  cattle  and  other 
farm  animals.  It  also  tests  fertilizers  and  other 
manufactured  articles  used  in  rural  life. 

Conclusion. 

So  reads  the  record  of  the  experiences  of  this 
noble  old  state  since  the  closing  of  the  war.  The 
New  Kentucky  is  an  established  fact.  Mine  owners 
have  gone  into  the  depths  of  the  earth  and  brought 
out  immense  quantities  of  coal  and  iron.  Men  have 
gone  to  the  mountain  tops  and  into  the  mountain 
coves  and  brought  out  timber  in  abundance.  Busy 
trains  rush  here  and  there,  north,  south  and  west, 
with  these  large  products  of  the  mills.  But  Ken- 
tucky is  still  an  agricultural  state.  The  rural  atti- 
tude and  the  rural  idea  still  obtain,  but  it  is  no 
longer  the  isolated  life  and  the  restricted  outlook  of 
the  earlier  days.  Telephones  are  found  everywhere. 
Eural  mail  delivery  exists  in  all  parts  of  the  state 
where  good  roads  are  found.  There  is  more  work, 
more  progress,  more  machinery  and  more  enthu- 
siasm everywhere.  Stores  have  sprung  up  at  many 
of  the  crossroads.  The  electric  car  runs  from  town 
to  town,  binding  the  people  together  in  new  commer- 


332  THE  HISTOKY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

cial  and  social  bonds.  A  new  agriculture  has  come 
to  stay,  and  signs  of  a  new  rural  life  are  everywhere 
apparent.  Kentucky  is  slowly  growing  rich,  but 
best  of  all,  this  rare  old  state,  with  treasures  of 
heart  and  brain,  with  its  old-time  hospitality,  with 
its  tendency  for  national  politics,  is  also  becoming 
national  in  its  interests  and  thought. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — There  is  no  extended  history  covering  this  period; 
for  special  topics  and  years  consult  Allen,  J.  L.:  Blue-grass  Region  of 
Kentucky  and  other  Kent-ucky  Articles  (New  York,  1900);  Breckinridge, 
W.  C.  P.:  Address  at  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  Breckinridge  County 
(Frankfort,  1882) ;  Collins,  R.  H. :  History  of  Kentucky  (Covington,  1874) ; 
Connelly,  E.  M.:  Story  of  Kentucky  (Boston,  1890);  Haney,  W.  H.:  The 
Mountain  People  of  Kentucky  (Cincinnati,  1906);  Hughes,  Schaefer  and 
Williams:  That  Kentucky  Campaign  (Cincinnati,  1900);  Kinkead,  E.  S.: 
History  of  Kentucky  (1896);  Lipscomb,  A.  B.  (ed.):  Commercial  History 
Southern  States,  Kentucky  (Louisville,  1902);  Ousley,  C.  C.:  Kentucky 
and  the  Jamestown  Exposition  (1907);  Powers,  Caleb:  My  Own  Story 
(1905);  Perrin,  Battle  and  Kniffin:  History  of  Kentucky  (Louisville  and 
Chicago,  1887);  Shaler,  N.  S.:  Kentucky  (Boston  and  New  York,  1884); 
Smith,  Z.  F.:  History  of  Kentucky  (Louisville,  1890);  Speed,  Thomas: 
Union  Cause  in  Kentucky  (New  York  and  London,  1907);  Biographical 
Encyclopedia  of  Kentucky1 »  Dead  and  Living  Men  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury (Cincinnati,  1878);  Century  Magazine:  The  Kentuckian  (Vol. 
XXXVIL);  Encyclopedia  Americana,  article  Kentucky  (Vol.  IX.);  Na- 
tional Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography,  article  Governors  of  Kentucky 
(Vol.  XIII.);  Register  of  State  Historical  Society;  History  of  Higher 
Education  in  Kentucky  (U.  S.  Bureau  Education,  1899);  United  States 
Geological  Reports;  American  Journal  of  Sociology:  Eastern  Kentucky, 
A  Retarded  Frontier  (Vol.  IV.)  and  Feuds  of  the  Kentucky  Mountains 
(Vol.  VII.);  Geolofrical  Journal:  Anglo-Saxons  of  Kentucky  (Vol.  XVII.); 
Harper's  Weekly:  The  Kentucky  Insurrection  (Vol.  XLIV.);  International 
Monthly:  Social  Condition  in  Kentucky  (Vol.  I.);  McClure's:  State  of 
Kentucky  vs.  Caleb  Powers  (Vol.  XXII.). 

GEORGE  ALLEN  HUBBELL, 

Proftttor  of  Sociology  and  Economics,  Kentucky  University. 


THE   HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 


CHAPTEB  I. 

WHILE  THE  TWO  VIRGINIAS  WERE  ONE, 

1750-1861. 

Geography  of  West  Virginia. 

HE  State  of  West  Virginia  has  the  most 
irregular  outline  of  all  the  American 
states.  It  is  situated  between  30°  6'  and 
40°30'  north  latitude,  and  between  0°40' 
and  5° 55'  longitude  west  from  Washing- 
ton, or  77°40'  and  82°55'  from  Greenwich.  The  area 
is  24,715  square  miles.  This  is  almost  twenty  times 
that  of  Rhode  Island,  twelve  times  that  of  Delaware, 
five  times  that  of  Connecticut,  three  times  that  of 
Massachusetts,  and  more  than  twice  that  of  Mary- 
land. The  state  embraces  four  distinct  physical 
regions  or  sections:  (1)  the  Ohio  Valley  Region;  (2) 
the  Cumberland  Plateau;  (3)  the  Allegheny  High- 
land, and  (4)  the  Potomac  Region.  The  boundaries 
of  each  are  well  known  to  those  who  have  given  at- 
tention to  the  topography  of  the  state.  There  are 
fifty-five  counties,  and  with  the  exception  of  two — 
Berkeley  and  Jefferson — on  the  upper  Potomac,  or 
in  the  Lower  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  six  others — 
Morgan,  Hampshire,  Mineral,  Hardy,  Grant  and 
Pendleton — all  lie  in  the  Trans-Allegheny  Region 
and  are  drained  by  northwestward  flowing  rivers 
into  the  Ohio.  Here,  amid  these  hills  and  mountains, 
white  men  have  made  nearly  two  centuries  of  civil 
and  military  history. 

533 


334         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 
Early  Explorations. 

All  over  the  state  are  the  evidences  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  people  now  long  gone.  These  consist  of 
mounds  which  dot  the  landscape,  and  implements, 
weapons  and  ornaments  scattered  over  the  surface 
or  upturned  by  the  plowshare.  They  are  interesting 
to  the  antiquarian,  but  have  no  place  in  history,  for 
neither  in  blood,  manners,  speech  nor  law,  have 
these  people  left  a  mark  in  all  the  land  in  which  they 
lived.  The  Indian  occupation  of  this  region  is  an 
interesting  topic.  A  band  of  Mohegans  was  on  the 
Kanawha  Eiver  in  1670;  still  later  the  Conoys  or 
Kanawhas,  whose  name  has  been  given  to  this  river, 
were  on  its  upper  tributaries ;  the  Cherokees  claimed 
that  portion  of  the  state  lying  south  of  the  Great 
Kanawha;  the  Shawnees  were  living  on  the  Upper 
Potomac  and  along  the  South  Branch  of  that  river 
in  the  first  half  of  the  Eighteenth  century ;  the  Dela- 
wares  lingered  in  the  valley  of  the  Monongahela  as 
late  as  1763,  while  bands  of  Mingoes,  Wyandotts  and 
Miamis  roamed  over  the  whole  extent  of  the  state  as 
a  common  hunting  ground. 

"West  Virginia  was  not  included  in  the  first  grant 
made  by  King  James  I.,  in  1606,  to  the  Virginia 
Company  of  London.  It  was,  however,  included  in 
its  chartered  limits  in  1609,  and  thus  the  state  be- 
came a  part  of  Virginia  when  the  infant  colony  at 
Jamestown  had  existed  but  two  years.  It  became  a 
land  of  discovery  and  exploration.  The  first  West 
Virginia  river  known  to  white  men  is  called  New 
Eiver;  it  was  discovered  in  1641-2  by  Walter  Aus- 
tin, Eice  Hoe,  and  their  associates.  In  1670  John 
Lederer,  a  German  explorer  in  the  service  of 
Sir  William  Berkeley,  in  company  with  a  Captain 
Collett  and  nine  Englishmen,  left  the  York  Eiver, 
passed  the  source  of  the  Eappahannock,  and  from 
the  crest  of  the  Blue  Eidge,  near  what  is  now 


KANAWHA  FALLS.  WEST  VIRGINIA. 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  335 

Harper's  Ferry,  looked  down  upon  the  Lower  Shen- 
andoah  Valley,  beyond  which  they  beheld  in  the 
distance,  standing  like  a  towering  wall,  the  Great 
North  Mountain  and  other  summits,  in  what  is  now 
Berkeley  and  Morgan  counties,  in  West  Virginia. 
The  same  year  Governor  Berkeley  issued  to  General 
Abram  Wood,  a  commission  "for  ye  finding  out  of 
ye  ebbing  and  flowing  of  ye  water  on  ye  other  side 
of  ye  mountains."  Under  this  authority  he,  the 
next  year,  sent  out  a  party  of  five  persons  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Thomas  Batts  for  this  purpose. 
They  left  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Petersburg, 
on  the  Appomattox  Eiver,  journeyed  westward  to 
the  Blue  Kidge,  which  mountain  barrier  they 
crossed,  and  descended  into  what  is  now  Monroe 
county,  West  Virginia.  Pressing  onward  they  be- 
held the  high  cliff  walls  of  the  canons  of  New  Eiver, 
and  on  the  evening  of  Sept.  16,  1671,  they  reached 
the  falls  of  the  Great  Kanawha,  where  they  "had  a 
sight  of  a  curious  river,  like  the  Thames  at  Chelsea, 
but  had  a  fall  that  made  a  great  noise."  The  next 
day  they  took  possession  of  the  valley  of  this  river 
for  the  King  in  these  words :  '  *  Long  live  Charles  ye 
2d,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  King  of  England,  Scotland, 
France,  Ireland,  Virginia  and  of  all  the  Territories 
thereto  belonging. ' '  Then  they  set  up  a  stick  by  the 
water- side  to  ascertain  the  ebb  and  flow;  marked 
some  trees,  and  discharged  fire-arms,  after  which 
they  began  the  homeward  march.  Such  was  the 
discovery  of  Kanawha  Falls  237  years  ago.  Forty- 
five  years  thereafter,  Alexander  Spottswood,  lieuten- 
ant-governor of  Virginia,  became  interested  in  ex- 
ploration to  the  westward  of  the  Blue  Eidge.  Equip- 
ping a  party  of  thirty  horsemen  and  heading  it  in 
person,  the  cavalcade  left  Williamsburg  and  jour- 
neyed onward  through  the  Piedmont  Eegion,  passed 
the  "great  divide,"  by  way  of  Swift  Gap,  and  de- 


336         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

scended  to  a  river  now  known  by  the  name  of  Shen- 
andoah,  but  to  which  the  explorers  gave  that  of 
"Euphrates" — the  first  Christian  name  bestowed 
upon  a  West  Virginia  river.  Far  away  to  the  west- 
ward they  beheld  the  mountain  peaks,  around  the 
"Birth-Place  of  Rivers,"  in  West  Virginia.  Such 
was  the  origin  of  the  "Knights  of  the  Golden  Horse- 
Shoe,"  a  title  bestowed  by  Spottswood  upon  those 
who  accompanied  him.  * 

Settlements  Before  1754. 

The  first  quarter  of  the  Eighteenth  century  passed 
away,  and  all  this  region  remained  a  primeval 
wilderness;  but  the  time  was  near  at  hand  when 
white  men  should  come  to  occupy  the  land.  In  1725 
John  Van  Meter,  an  Indian  trader  from  the  Hudson 
Eiver,  traversed  the  Lower  Shenandoah,  Upper  Po- 
tomac and  South  Branch  Valleys,  but  the  honor  of 
fixing  the  first  permanent  home  of  civilized  men  in 
West  Virginia  was  reserved  to  another.  This  was 
Morgan  Morgan,  who,  in  1726-7,  reared  his  home  on 
the  site  of  the  present  village  of  Bunker  Hill,  in  what 
is  now  Mill  Creek  magisterial  district,  in  Berke- 
ley county.  He  was  a  native  of  Wales  who  came 
early  in  life  to  Pennsylvania,  and  thence  to  the 
Shenandoah  Valley.  He  was  soon  followed  by  some 
German  people  from  that  colony  whose  ancestral 
home  was  Mecklenburg  in  the  Fatherland;  they 
crossed  the  Potomac  at  the  "Old  Pack-Horse  Ford" 
in  1727,  and  a  mile  above,  on  its  southern  bank, 
among  the  masses  of  gray  limestone  everywhere  vis- 
ible, they  laid  the  foundation  of  a  village  which  they 
called  New  Mecklenburg.  This  is  now  Shepherds- 
town,  the  oldest  town  in  West  Virginia.  Soon  after 
Richard  Morgan  obtained  a  grant  for  a  tract  of 
land  near  Mecklenburg,  where  he  made  his  home. 
Among  those  who  came  about  1734  and  found  homes 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  337 

along  the  Potomac  River,  in  what  are  the  present 
counties  of  Berkeley  and  Jefferson,  were  Robert 
Harper  (at  Harper's  Ferry),  William  Stroop,  Thom- 
as and  William  Forester,  Van  Swearingen,  James 
Foreman,  Edward  Lucas,  Jacob  Hite,  Jacob  Lemon, 
Richard  Mercer,  Edward  Mercer,  Jacob  Van  Meter, 
Robert  Stockton,  Robert  Buckles,  John  Taylor,  Sam- 
uel Taylor  and  John  Wright.  In  1735  the  first  set- 
tlement %~as  made  in  the  valley  of  the  South  Branch 
of  the  Potomac,  in  what  is  now  Hampshire  county, 
by  four  families  of  the  names  of  Cobun,  Howard, 
Walker  and  Rutledge.  A  year  thereafter  Isaac  Van 
Meter,  Peter  Casey,  the  Pancakes,  Foremans  and 
others  reared  homes  further  up  the  South  Branch, 
some  of  them  within  what  is  now  Hardy  county. 

A  land  grant  which  played  an  important  part  in 
the  early  settlement  of  West  Virginia  was  that 
known  as  the  "Lord  Fairfax  Patent."  In  1681 — 
forty-five  years  before  a  white  man  found  a  home  in 
West  Virginia — King  Charles  II.  issued  letters  pat- 
ent to  Ralph  Hopton;  Henry,  Earl  of  St.  Albans; 
John,  Lord  Culpeper;  John,  Lord  Berkeley;  Sir 
William  Morton,  Sir  Dudley  Wyatt  and  Thomas 
Culpeper,  their  heirs  and  assigns  forever  for  all  the 
lands  situated  between  the  rivers  Rappahannock 
and  Potomac,  and  bounded  by  the  courses  of  these 
rivers.  Years  passed  away;  the  proprietors  died, 
and  the  vast  estate  descended  to  the  sixth  Lord, 
Thomas  Fairfax,  who  had  wedded  Margaret,  the 
only  child  of  Lord  Culpeper.  At  the  time  of  the 
original  grant  nothing  was  thought  of  its  extent  west 
of  the  Blue  Ridge,  but  as  the  region  drained  by  the 
upper  tributary  streams  of  the  Potomac  became 
known,  it  was  seen  that  a  large  portion  of  it  would 
be  included  within  the  limits  of  this  grant.  Com- 
missioners were  therefore  mynointed — three  by  the 
King,  and  three  by  Lord  Fairfax — to  determine  its 

Vol.  1—22, 


338         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

boundaries.  There  were  delays,  but  on  Oct.  17, 
1746,  the  "Fairfax  Stone"  was  erected  at  the  source, 
or  first  fountain,  of  the  North  Branch  of  the  Poto- 
mac; thence  a  line  was  afterward  run  to  the  source 
of  the  Kappahannock,  the  present  West  Virginia 
counties,  within  the  grant  being  the  whole  of  Jeffer- 
son, Berkeley,  Morgan,  Hampshire,  Mineral,  nine- 
tenths  of  Hardy,  three-fourths  of  Grant  and  one- 
eighth  of  Tucker — an  area  of  2,540  square  miles, 
or  1,625,600  acres.  In  1747  Lord  Fairfax  employed 
the  boy  surveyor,  George  Washington,  to  lay  off 
portions  of  these  lands  to  suit  settlers  then  arriv- 
ing, and  in  this,  and  the  two  ensuing  years,  nearly 
300  tracts  were  surveyed.  Thus  it  was  that  George 
Washington,  who  led  the  American  armies  in  the 
Eevolution,  and  who  was  the  first  President  of  the 
United  States,  surveyed  the  first  farms  in  West 
Virginia.  Settlements  were  formed  far  up  the 
South  Branch  of  the  Potomac,  even  into  what  is  now 
Pendleton  county,  and  daring  frontiersmen  sought 
homes  beyond  the  mountains  to  the  westward.  In 
1753  David  Tygart  and  Eobert  Foyle  settled  on 
what  is  since  known  as  Tygart 's  Valley  Eiver,  now 
in  Randolph  county.  The  next  year  Thomas  Eckarly 
and  two  brothers  reared  a  cabin  on  Dunkard's  Bot- 
tom on  Cheat  Eiver,  now  in  Preston  county,  and  three 
years  later  Thomas  Decker  and  others  began  a  settle- 
ment at  the  mouth  of  what  has  since  been  known  as 
Decker's  Creek,  on  the  Monongahela  Eiver,  where 
Morgantown,  in  Monongalia  county,  now  stands. 

Another  land  grant  played  an  important  part  in 
the  early  settlement  of  West  Virginia.  It  was  for 
100,000  acres  in  the  Greenbrier  Valley,  made  in 
1749  to  the  "Greenbrier  Land  Company,'*  which 
consisted  of  twelve  members,  among  whom  were  its 
president,  John  Robinson,  treasurer  of  the  colony 
of  Virginia ;  Thomas  Nelson,  for  thirty  years  secre- 


WEST  VIKGINIA,  1750-1861. 

tary  of  the  Council  of  State,  and  John  Lewis,  the 
founder  of  Staunton,  and  two  of  his  sons.  Pour 
years  were  allowed  for  surveys  and  settlements. 
Andrew  Lewis,  afterward  General  Andrew  Lewis 
of  the  Eevolution,  was  appointed  surveyor  for  the 
company;  he  hastened  the  work,  and  Col.  John  Stu- 
art, the  historian  of  the  Greenbrier  Valley,  states 
that  prior  to  1755  Lewis  had  surveyed  settlement 
rights  aggregating  more  than  50,000  acres.  Thus 
civilized  men  found  homes  in  the  Greenbrier  Valley. 
The  settlements  in  the  wilds  of  Augusta  county  were 
formed  in  1738,  and  by  an  act  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses in  1753,  Hampshire  county,  embracing  all 
the  settlements  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Potomac, 
and  the  first  unit  of  civil  government  in  West  Vir- 
ginia, was  created.  In  1756  Captain  Teague  sent  to 
the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  London,  a  *  *  List 
of  Tithables"  on  which  was  based  a  census  of  Vir- 
ginia. Taking  his  estimate  it  appears  that  at  this 
time  there  were  about  10,000  whites  and  400  blacks 
within  the  present  limits  of  West  Virginia. 

If  an  irregular  line  be  drawn  from  the  Blue  Ridge 
through  Harper's  Ferry  and  Charles  Town  in  Jef- 
ferson county,  Martinsburg  in  Berkeley  county, 
Berkeley  Springs  in  Morgan  county,  Romney  in 
Hampshire  county,  Moorefield  in  Hardy  county, 
Petersburg  in  Grant  county,  Upper  Tract  and 
Franklin  in  Pendleton  county,  Marlinton  in  Poca- 
hontas  county,  thence  down  Greenbrier  River 
through  Greenbrier  county,  and  thence  through 
Monroe  county  to  Peter's  Mountain,  it  will  pass 
centrally  through  the  region  in  which  resided  the 
pioneer  settlers  of  West  Virginia  at  that  time. 

Wars  with  Indians. 

From  the  time  of  the  coming  of  the  first  settler  to 
the  state  to  the  year  1754,  white  men  and  Indians 


340         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

had  lived  together  in  peace  and  harmony.  But  now 
the  old  French  and  Indian  War — the  final  struggle 
between  the  French  and  English  for  territorial 
supremacy  in  America — was  at  hand,  and  barbarian 
warfare  was  to  desolate  the  West  Virginia  settle- 
ments. The  colonial  government  of  Virginia,  at  the 
head  of  which  was  the  lieutenant-governor,  Robert 
Dinwiddie,  hastened  preparations  for  defense.  Col. 
George  Washington,  with  the  First  Virginia  Regi- 
ment, was  sent  to  the  West  Virginia  frontier.  Forts 
for  defensive  and  offensive  operations  were  speedily 
erected.  Fort  Ashby  stood  on  the  east  bank  of  Pat- 
terson's Creek,  in  what  is  now  Frankfort  district, 
Mineral  county;  Fort  Waggener  was  on  the  South 
Branch  of  the  Potomac,  three  miles  above  the  site  of 
Moorefield,  in  Hardy  county;  Fort  Capon  was  at 
Forks  of  Capon,  now  in  Bloomery  district,  in  Hamp- 
shire county;  Fort  Cox  stood  on  the  lower  point  of 
land  at  the  confluence  of  the  Little  Cacapon  and 
Potomac  rivers ;  Fort  Edwards  was  near  the  site  of 
Capon  Bridge,  now  in  Bloomery  district,  Hampshire 
county;  Fort  Evans  was  two  miles  south  of  where 
Martinsburg,  in  Arden  district,  Berkeley  county, 
now  stands;  Fort  Ohio  stood  where  the  village  of 
Ridgeley,  in  Frankfort  district,  Mineral  county,  is 
now  situated;  Fort  Pearsall  was  on  the  site  of  the 
present  town  of  Romney,  in  Hampshire  county; 
Fort  Peterson  was  on  the  South  Branch  of  the  Po- 
tomac, in  Milroy  district,  Grant  county;  Fort  Pleas- 
ant was  erected  on  the  Indian  Old  Fields,  now  in 
Hardy  county;  Fort  Riddle  was  in  Lost  River  dis- 
trict, Hardy  county;  Fort  Sellers  was  at  the  mouth 
of  Patterson's  Creek,  now  in  Frankfort  district, 
Mineral  county;  Fort  Upper  Tract  was  in  what  is 
now  Mill  Run  district,  Pendleton  county,  and  Fort 
Seybert  stood  on  the  bank  of  the  South  Fork  of  the 
South  Branch  of  the  Potomac  in  the  same  county. 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  341 

The  French,  with  their  savage  allies,  bore  down 
with  resistless  fury  upon  the  West  Virginia  bor- 
der, and  around  these  primitive  forts  were  enacted 
many  of  the  tragedies  and  dramas  of  the  wilderness. 
The  Tygart  and  Foyle  settlements  on  Tygart's  Val- 
ley Eiver,  together  with  those  of  the  Eckarlys  on 
Cheat  River,  and  of  the  Deckers  on  the  Mononga- 
liela,  were  destroyed,  and  many  persons  killed  on 
Qreenbrier  River.  Fierce  battles  were  waged  in 
the  vicinity  of  Fort  Edwards,  Fort  Riddle  and  Fort 
Pleasant;  bloody  massacres  occurred  at  Fort  Up- 
per Tract  and  Fort  Seybert,  and  many  a  West  Vir- 
ginia family  became  victims  of  savage  barbarity. 
After  seven  years  of  war,  hostilities  were  ended; 
then  came  the  conspiracy  of  Pontiac  in  1763,  and 
with  it  the  Muddy  Creek  massacre  in  the  Greenbrier 
Valley,  in  which  the  entire  settlement  was  destroyed 
by  a  band  of  Shawnee  Indians. 

Settlements  1760-1776. 

Now  for  a  time  the  Indian  wars  were  ended,  and 
what  is  known  as  "the  halcyon  decade  of  the  Eight- 
eenth century" — 1763-1773 — was  ushered  in.  Dar- 
ing pioneers  sought  homes  west  of  the  mountains; 
James  Moss  reared  his  cabin  home  at  the  Sweet 
Springs,  now  in  Monroe  county,  in  1760;  Archibald 
Clendenin  and  Felta  Youcom,  on  Greenbrier  River, 
in  1761;  in  1764  John  and  Samuel  Pringle  fixed 
their  homes  at  the  mouth  of  Turkey  creek  on  Buck- 
hanon  River,  in  what  is  now  Upshur  county;  the 
same  year  John  Simpson,  a  trapper  from  the  South 
Branch  of  the  Potomac,  built  a  cabin  at  the  mouth 
of  Elk  creek  on  the  West  Fork  of  the  Monongahela, 
where  Clarksburg,  in  Harrison  county,  now  stands; 
John  McNeel  found  a  home  on  the  "Little  Levels," 
now  in  Pocahontas  county,  as  early  as  1765 ;  James 
Booth  came  to  Booth's  creek,  now  in  Marion  county, 


342         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

as  early  as  1765;  Zackwell  Morgan  settled  where 
Morgantown,  in  Monongalia  county,  now  stands,  in 
1766;  the  same  year  Jacob  Prickett  brought  his 
family  to  the  mouth  of  Prickett 's  creek,  now  in  Mar- 
ion county;  Charles  and  James  Kennison  joined 
John  McNeel  on  the  "Little  Levels"  of  Pocahontas 
county  in  1768;  Thomas  and  William  Eenick  and 
Robert  McClennahan  settled  at  Falling  Springs, 
now  in  Greenbrier  county,  in  1769;  on  a  bright 
spring  morning  in  May,  1770,  Ebenezer  Zane  arrived 
upon  the  site  of  the  city  of  Wheeling,  of  which  he 
was  the  founder ;  Thomas  Williams,  William  McCoy, 
William  Hughart  and  John  Jordan  located  the  same 
year  at  and  near  the  site  of  Williamsburg,  now  in 
Greenbrier  county;  Christian  Peters  came  to  what 
is  now  Petersburg,  in  Monroe  county,  in  1771 ;  Adam 
Mann,  Valentine  Cook  and  Isaac  Estill  fixed  their 
habitations  near  him  the  same  year.  Jacob  Wetzel 
built  his  cabin  on  Wheeling  creek,  Ohio  county,  in 
1771,  and  a  year  later  Joseph  Tomlinson  found  a 
home  on  the  Grave  creek  flats,  where  Moundsville, 
in  Marshall  county,  now  stands ;  James  and  Thomas 
Parsons  located  at  the  Horse-Shoe  Bend,  on  Cheat 
River,  now  in  Tucker  county,  in  1772;  William  Mc- 
Clung  and  Andrew  Donnally  came  to  the  vicinity 
of  the  present  town  of  Frankfort,  in  Greenbrier 
county,  in  1773,  and  Leonard  Morris  reared  his 
cabin  on  the  site  of  old  Brownstown,  now  Marmet,  on 
the  Great  Kanawha  River,  in  1774.  Thus  were  the 
homes  of  civilized  men  established  over  all  the 
region  from  the  Alleghany  Mountains  to  the  Ohio 
River.  Speedily  were  these  joined  by  other  home- 
seekers  in  the  wilderness,  and  so  many  came  that  in 
1775  there  were  30,000  people  residing  in  what  is 
now  West  Virginia. 

In  these  years  of  peace  the  English  sought  to 
extinguish   the   Indian's    title   to   West   Virginia. 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  343 

This  was  accomplished  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty 
of  Fort  Stanwix — now  Kome — New  York,  in  1768, 
when  the  Six  United  Nations  ceded  to  the  King  of 
England  practically  all  of  West  Virginia,  except 
what  was  known  as  the  " Indiana  Cession."  This 
was  a  region  within  West  Virginia  which  the  Six 
Nations  reserved  in  their  cession  to  the  King,  and 
granted  to  Capt.  William  Trent  and  other  Indian 
traders  in  consideration  of  merchandise  taken  from 
them  by  the  Indians  on  the  Ohio  in  1763.  Its  extent 
is  shown  by  the  statement  that  it  included  of  present 
West  Virginia  counties  within  its  bounds,  one-half 
of  Wood,  two-fifths  of  Wirt,  one-third  of  Calhoun, 
one-half  of  Gilmer,  one-tenth  of  Braxton,  one-sixth 
of  Eandolph,  and  all  of  Pleasants,  Ritchie,  Lewis, 
Upshur,  Barbour,  Doddridge,  Harrison,  Taylor, 
Monongalia,  Wetzel  and  Tyler — a  total  area  of 
4,950  square  miles,  or  3,168,640  acres.  The  General 
Assembly  of  Virginia  repudiated  the  title  and  the 
traders  never  came  into  possession  of  any  part  of 
the  cession. 

The  "  Province  of  Vandalia"  has  the  most  inter- 
esting history  of  any  embryo  state  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  As  early  as  1756  Governor  Dinwiddie  had 
urged  upon  the  English  government  the  necessity 
of  founding  a  new  province  in  the  Ohio  Valley. 
Later  the  scheme  was  supported  by  a  number  of 
statesmen,  among  them  Lord  Halifax.  A  petition 
signed  by  eminent  Virginians  went  over-sea  in  1772, 
praying  for  the  establishment  of  a  separate  govern- 
ment for  a  province  to  the  westward,  to  be  known 
by  the  name  of  "Vandalia,"  the  capital  of  which 
was  to  be  located  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha 
Eiver,  now  Point  Pleasant  in  Mason  county.  With- 
in the  boundaries  as  then  defined  were  included 
forty  of  the  present  counties  of  West  Virginia.  The 
charter  had  passed  the  seals,  but  the  renewal  of  the 


344         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

Indian  wars  and  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution 
put  an  end  to  the  scheme. 

Another  embryo  state  west  of  the  Alleghanies  was 
that  known  as  the  "Province  of  Westsylvania, " 
within  the  bounds  of  which  lay  nearly  all  of  the 
present  state  of  West  Virginia.  The  scheme  was 
inaugurated  by  Daniel  Eogers  and  others  in  July, 
1776.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  condition  of  the  people 
who  had  settled  in  the  Monongahela  Valley,  within 
the  region  claimed  by  both  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 
vania. Two  plans  were  suggested;  one  was  that 
they  should  assemble  and  send  delegates  to  a  con- 
vention at  Fort  Beckett,  there  to  organize  a  govern- 
ment, and  thus  become  the  "fourteenth  link  in  the 
American  chain."  A  second  was  that  they  should 
send  petitions  to  the  Continental  Congress,  praying 
that  body  to  declare  the  said  country  an  independent 
province  to  be  hailed  and  known  as  "Westsylvania." 
The  War  of  Independence  put  an  end  to  this  scheme, 
as  it  had  to  that  of  establishing  the  province  of 
Vandalia. 

The  "District  of  West  Augusta"  was  one  of  the 
historic  and  military  divisions  of  West  Virginia.  It 
is  a  name  never  to  be  forgotten  as  long  as  the  his- 
tory of  the  state  is  known.  It  embraced  the  whole 
of  northern  West  Virginia  lying  westward  of  Hamp- 
shire county,  and  included  two-thirds  of  the  present 
county  of  Randolph,  one-half  of  Barbour,  one-third 
of  Tucker,  half  of  Taylor,  one-third  of  Preston, 
nearly  the  whole  of  Marion  and  Monongalia,  one- 
fourth  of  Harrison,  one-half  of  Doddridge,  two- 
thirds  of  Tyler,  and  the  whole  of  Wetzel,  Marshall, 
Ohio,  Brooke  and  Hancock.  Within  it  lived  as  heroic 
and  patriotic  a  people  as  ever  dwelt  upon  the  con- 
fines of  civilization.  They  withstood  the  storm  of 
savage  warfare,  and  were  ready  for  the  service 
of  their  country  at  the  first  drum-tap  of  the  Revolu- 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  345 

tion.  The  " District  of  West  Augusta"  was  extin- 
guished by  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1776, 
when  the  counties  of  Ohio,  Monongalia  and  Yoho- 
gania  were  formed  therefrom.  The  latter  was 
largely  cut  off  to  Pennsylvania  by  the  western  ex- 
tension of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,  and  the  residue 
was  added  to  Ohio  county. 

More  Indian  Wars:  Battle  of  Point  Pleasant. 
The  ten  years'  truce  was  ended;  Indian  hostilities 
were  renewed,  and  the  year  1774  brought  with  it 
that  series  of  military  movements  known  as  Lord 
Dunmore's  War.  This  resulted  from  the  treachery 
of  both  the  whites  and  the  Indians.  On  April 
16  of  that  year,  a  large  canoe  filled  with  white 
men  was  attacked  by  Indians  near  Wheeling,  and 
one  of  them  in  it  killed.  A  party  of  about  thirty 
frontiersmen  hastened  to  Baker's  Station,  which 
was  opposite  the  mouth  of  Yellow  Creek,  and  in 
what  is  now  Grant  district,  Hancock  county,  where, 
under  circumstances  of  great  perfidy,  they  killed  ten 
Indians,  among  whom  were  some  of  the  relatives  of 
Logan,  a  distinguished  chieftain  of  the  Mingo 
tribe.  War  was  now  inevitable,  and  the  storm  burst 
with  all  its  fury  on  the  West  Virginia  frontier. 
Bands  of  warriors  laid  waste  the  settlements,  and 
men  and  women  fell  victims  to  savage  barbarity. 
Messengers  bore  the  tidings  of  bloodshed  to  Wil- 
liamsburg,  the  colonial  capital  of  Virginia.  The 
governor,  John  Murray,  fourth  Earl  of  Dunmore, 
ordered  Maj.  Angus  McDonald  to  collect  the  settlers 
on  the  Upper  Potomac  and  invade  the  Indian  coun- 
try. He  obeyed  the  summons,  and  hastened  to 
Wheeling,  where  he  erected  Fort  Fincastle  (after- 
ward Fort  Henry) .  In  June,  with  400  men — nearly 
all  West  Virginia  pioneers — he  descended  the  Ohio 
to  the  month  of  Captlna  creeK  and  marched  thence  to 


346         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

the  interior  of  what  is  now  the  state  of  Ohio,  where 
he  burned  the  Indian  towns  and  laid  waste  the  corn- 
fields. This  done,  the  army  returned  to  Wheeling, 
whence  many  of  the  men  returned  to  their  homes. 

The  war  continued,  and  Lord  Dunmore,  having 
ordered  Gen.  Andrew  Lewis  to  collect  an  army  of 
1,500  men  in  the  counties  of  Augusta,  Botetourt  and 
adjacent  territory,  left  the  gubernatorial  mansion, 
and  hastening  over  the  Blue  Eidge,  fixed  his  head- 
quarters at  "Greenway  Court,"  the  home  of  Lord 
Fairfax,  which  stood  thirteen  miles  southeast  of 
Winchester  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Here  he  en- 
gaged in  mustering  a  force  consisting  of  a  like  num- 
ber to  form  the  northern  or  right  wing  of  the  army 
destined  for  the  invasion  of  the  Indian  country ;  that 
under  General  Lewis  was  to  constitute  its  southern 
or  left  wing.  General  Lewis  made  Camp  Union,  now 
Lewisburg,  in  Greenbrier  county,  the  place  of  ren- 
dezvous, and  having  assembled  an  army  of  1,480 
men,  began  the  march  of  160  miles  through  a  track- 
less wilderness  to  the  Ohio  River.  This  force  con- 
sisted of  the  Augusta  regiment  commanded  by  his 
brother,  Col.  Charles  Lewis,  the  Botetourt  regiment 
under  Col.  William  Fleming,  and  a  battalion  from 
the  Watauga  and  Holston  settlements,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  Maj.  William  Christian.  Both  regi- 
ments reached  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha 
River  on  Oct.  6, 1774,  where,  on  the  10th  ensuing,  they 
waged  the  most  desperate  battle  ever  fought  with 
the  Indians  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  The  Indian 
army,  probably  equal  in  numbers  to  that  of  the  Vir- 
ginians, was  composed  of  the  best  warriors  of  the 
Shawnee,  Delaware,  Mingo,  Wyandotte  and  Cayuga 
tribes,  led  by  their  respective  chiefs,  at  whose  head 
was  Cornstalk,  sachem  of  the  Shawnees  and  head 
of  the  Western  Confederacy.  The  battle,  beginning 
at  day-dawn,  continued  until  evening,  when  the  Indi- 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  347 

ans,  beaten,  retreated  across  the  Ohio.  The  Vir- 
ginians had  seventy-five  killed  and  140  wounded. 
Meantime  Lord  Dunmore  with  the  northern  wing  of 
the  army  had  proceeded  by  way  of  Fort  Pitt,  and 
descended  the  Ohio  to  the  mouth  of  Hockhocking 
Eiver.  From  there  he  proceeded  through  the  wilder- 
ness to  the  Pickaway  Plains  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Scioto-noir.  General  Lewis  having  cared  for  the  dead 
and  wounded,  crossed  the  Ohio  with  1,000  men  and 
marched  for  the  same  destination.  Arriving  there 
the  two  divisions  were  united,  and  Lord  Dunmore 
made  a  treaty  known  as  that  of  ' '  Camp  Charlotte, ' ' 
by  the  terms  of  which  the  Indians  were  kept  quiet 
for  three  years.  The  Virginians  returned  to  their 
homes  well  pleased  with  the  results  of  the  war. 

West  Virginia  in  the  Revolution. 

West  Virginia  did  her  full  part  in  the  Revolution, 
and  may  be  regarded  as  the  "fourteenth  link  in  the 
American  chain"  in  the  struggle  for  independence 
and  national  life.  This  is  attested  by  a  vast  mass 
of  documentary  evidence  still  preserved.  The  units 
of  government  then  existing  within  what  is  now  the 
state  were  the  "District  of  West  Augusta"  and  the 
counties  of  Hampshire,  Berkeley,  Monongalia,  Ohio 
and  Greenbrier,  the  latter  being  formed  in  1777. 
When  intelligence  of  the  battle  of  Lexington  reached 
the  frontiersmen  of  West  Virginia,  hundreds  of 
them  hastened  away  to  old  Fort  Pitt — then  believed 
to  be  within  the  confines  of  Virginia — where  they 
assembled  in  convention,  and,  having  by  resolution 
pledged  their  lives  to  the  cause  of  American  liberty, 
proceeded  to  elect  John  Harvie  and  John  Neville  to 
represent  them  in  the  convention  at  Williamsburg 
in  May  ensuing.  In  this  body  they  were  admitted 
to  seats  "as  the  representatives  of  the  people  of 
that  part  of  Virginia  which  lies  to  the  westward  of 


348         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

the  Alleghany  Mountains."  The  first  company  of 
enlisted  men  from  the  south  of  the  Potomac  that 
joined  Washington  at  Boston  was  Capt.  Hugh  Ste- 
venson's Berkeley  County  Riflemen.  It  left  Morgan's 
Spring,  now  in  Jefferson  county,  July  17, 1775,  "not 
a  man  missing,"  and  on  arriving  at  the  American 
camp  was  introduced  by  its  captain  as  being  "from 
the  right  bank  of  the  Potomac."  General  Washing- 
ton knew  some  of  these  men  personally,  and  passing 
along  the  line  shook  the  hand  of  every  man  in  it. 
Capt.  William  Darke  and  Captain  Beale  each  or- 
ganized companies  of  Berkeley  county  men  for  the 
Fourth  Regiment  on  Continental  establishment. 
Capt.  James  Parsons  with  a  company  of  Hampshire 
county  men  hastened  away  to  the  field  and  served 
in  the  Third  Regiment;  Capt.  Jacob  Westf all's 
Riflemen,  from  that  part  of  Monongalia  now  Ran- 
dolph county,  was  attached  to  the  Eighth  Regiment, 
and  rendered  faithful  service;  Capt.  James  Booth's 
Company  of  Frontiersmen,  from  what  is  now  Har- 
rison and  Marion  counties,  served  in  the  western 
military  department.  Greenbrier  county  with  but 
550  effective  men  had,  at  one  time,  174  of  them  in 
service,  some  in  the  Continental  army  and  others 
with  General  Clark  in  his  western  campaigns. 

On  Jan.  8,  1777,  the  Continental  Congress  ordered 
the  West  Augusta  Battalion  to  join  Washington  in 
New  Jersey.  This  was  part  of  the  Thirteenth  Vir- 
ginia, commanded  by  Col.  William  Crawford,  then 
stationed  at  Pittsburg,  and  known  as  the  "West  Au- 
gusta Regiment"  because  its  rank  and  file  were  com- 
posed almost  entirely  of  West  Virginia  pioneers, 
whose  homes  were  within  the  bounds  of  the  old 
historic  "District  of  West  Augusta,"  men  as  brave 
as  any  that  ever  faced  an  enemy.  Garrett  Van 
Meter,  county-lieutenant  of  Hampshire  county,  kept 
his  commissary  and  quartermaster  busy  collecting 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  349 

supplies  in  the  valley  of  the  South  Branch  of  the 
Potomac,  and  these  were  sent  to  the  armies — some 
by  way  of  Pittsburg  to  General  Clark  for  use  in  his 
western  campaigns.  Edward  Snickers  went  to  and 
fro  over  the  Lower  Shenandoah  Valley — now  Berke- 
ley and  Jefferson  counties — collecting  corn,  wheat 
and  other  supplies  for  the  Continental  army,  and 
Mabre  Maden,  of  Berkeley,  used  his  teams  to  haul 
these  to  points  where  needed.  John  Evans,  county- 
lieutenant  of  Monongalia,  gathered  supplies  up  and 
down  the  Monongahela  River,  and  sent  them  to  the 
Thirteenth  Regiment  and  other  troops  of  the  west- 
ern military  department  at  Pittsburg.  In  1776 
some  of  the  British  prisoners,  taken  by  Captain 
Barron  on  the  sloop-of-war  Oxford,  were  sent  to 
Berkeley  county  for  safe  keeping,  and  their  wants 
were  supplied  by  the  people  of  that  vicinity;  and  in 
1781  the  Hesse  Hanau  Regiment  (Hessians)  pris- 
oners, 300  strong,  were  sent  to  Berkeley  Springs  in 
Berkeley  (now  Morgan)  county,  where  they  were 
guarded  and  fed  by  West  Virginians  until  the  close 
of  the  war.  Verily  West  Virginia  did  her  part  in 
the  struggle  for  independence. 

Each  unit  of  government  within  her  limits  had  its 
own  Committee  of  Safety,  working  harmoniously 
with  the  State  Committee  of  Virginia,  and  it  may 
be  said  that  not  one  of  them  ever  failed  to  respond 
cheerfully  and  with  a  true  patriotic  spirit  to  every 
requisition  made  upon  each  and  every  one  of  them, 
be  it  for  men  for  the  Continental  army,  or  for  the 
Virginia  state  line,  for  horses,  provisions,  clothing 
or  other  supplies  for  the  armies  battling  for  na- 
tional existence.  West  Virginians  were  on  nearly 
all  the  battlefields  of  that  war,  and  there  are  more 
graves  of  Revolutionary  soldiers  in  West  Virginia 
than  in  any  other  American  state,  outside  of  the 
thirteen  original  commonwealths. 


350         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

In  1776  Virginia  adopted  a  constitution  which 
continued  to  be  the  organic  law  of  the  commonwealth 
until  1830 — a  period  of  fifty-four  years.  It  pro- 
vided for  a  government  having  a  division  of  powers 
— legislative,  executive  and  judicial — but  in  reality 
almost  all  power,  instead  of  being  vested  in  the  peo- 
ple, was  reserved  to  the  legislative  branch,  called  the 
General  Assembly.  This  body  consisted  of  two 
houses — a  senate  and  a  house  of  delegates.  The 
former,  when  organized,  contained  twenty-four 
members,  while  the  latter  was  composed  of  two  mem- 
bers from  each  county,  chosen  annually  by  the  votes 
of  the  freeholders.  A  governor  and  a  Privy  Council, 
or  Council  of  State,  consisting  of  eight  members 
were  elected  annually  by  the  General  Assembly,  the 
latter  to  assist  in  the  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment. Likewise,  the  judges  of  the  court  of  appeals, 
the  general  court,  judges  in  chancery,  judges  in 
admiralty,  secretary  and  attorney-general  of  the 
commonwealth  were  all  elected  by  that  body,  but 
commissioned  by  the  governor,  who  was  vested  with 
the  appointing  power  of  all  county  officials  except 
members  of  the  General  Assembly,  who,  as  stated, 
were  elected  by  the  people,  whose  right  to  vote  was 
determined  by  a  property  qualification.  We  shall 
see  how  the  provisions  of  this  constitution  produced 
dissension  in  the  western  portion  of  the  common- 
wealth— now  West  Virginia. 

Development  After  Revolution. 

The  Revolution  terminated  in  1783,  but  not  so  the 
border  wars.  The  Indian  nations  of  the  Ohio  wilder- 
ness had  been  the  allies  of  the  English  since  1777,  and 
for  twelve  years  after  the  treaty  of  Paris  they  con- 
tinued to  wage  a  fierce  and  relentless  warfare  upon 
the  frontier  civilization.  Throughout  all  these  years 
they  carried  death  and  destruction  into  the  West 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  351 

Virginia  settlements,  and  spread  desolation  through- 
out the  valleys  and  along  the  tributary  streams  of 
the  Great  Kanawha  and  Monongahela  rivers,  and  on 
the  southern  banks  of  the  Ohio.  Block-houses  and 
stockade  forts — places  of  defensive  and  offensive 
operations — were  erected  in  many  localities,  and 
the  scenes  that  transpired  about  them  and  in  the 
cabin  homes  nearby  in  these  years  are  without  a 
parallel  in  the  annals  of  barbarian  warfare.  These 
West  Virginians  were  ever  ready  to  yield  up  their 
lives  in  defense  of  their  homes,  and  when  not  en- 
gaged in  defending  them  were  much  of  the  time  on 
expeditions  into  the  Indian  country.  Some  were  at 
St.  Glair's  defeat,  and  others  at  Wayne's  victory  at 
Fallen  Timbers.  This  last  forever  ended  the  Indian 
wars  on  the  south  side  of  the  Ohio.  Henceforth  the 
pioneers  dwelt  in  their  cabin  homes  without  fear  of 
savage  fury.  It  may  be  truthfully  said  that  when 
these  border  wars  were  ended,  more  men,  women 
and  children  had  perished  at  the  hands  of  the  savage 
foe — victims  of  the  stake,  rifle,  tomahawk  and  scalp- 
ing knife — in  West  Virginia,  than  had  died  from 
similar  causes  in  any  other  region  of  equal  extent 
in  America. 

Moorefield,  the  seat  of  justice  of  Hardy  county,  in 
the  South  Branch  Vallev,  was  the  designated  place 
of  rendezvous,  and  from  here  marched  the  West  Vir- 
ginians who  served  in  the  National  army  in  its  cam- 
paign for  the  suppression  of  the  whiskey  insurrec- 
tion in  western  Pennsylvania  in  1794. 

It  had  boen  said  of  the  West  Virginia  pioneers 
that  they  belonged  to  a  class  of  men  who  were 
''farmers  to-day,  statesmen  to-morrow  and  soldiers 
always."  This  appears  to  have  been  true.  When 
the  Virginia  Federal  convention  convened  at  Eich- 
mond  June  2,  1788,  to  take  into  consideration  the 
proposed  form  of  Federal  government — the  Na- 


352         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

tional  constitution — there  sat  in  it  sixteen  members 
for  the  eight  West  Virginia  counties  then  checkered 
on  the  map  of  Virginia.  These  counties,  with  their 
representatives  in  that  convention,  were  as  follows : 

Berkeley  County — William     Darke  Harrison  County — George  Jackson 

and  Adam  Stephen.  and  George  Prunty. 

Greenbrier   County — George   Clen-  Monongalia  County — John  Evans 

denin  and  John  Stuart.  and  William  McCleery. 

Hampshire  County — Andrew  Wood-  Ohio    County — Archibald    Woods 

row  and  Ralph  Humphreys.  and  Ebenezer  Zane. 

Hardy  County — Isaac  Van  Meter  Randolph  County — Benjamin  Wil- 

and  Abel  Seymour.  son  and  John  Wilson. 

Every  one  of  these  men  were  farmers  at  home; 
every  one  had  seen  military  service  during  the  Kevo- 
lution  and  Indian  wars,  and  all  were  acting  the  part 
of  statesmen  now.  Who  shall  say  to  what  extent! 
On  the  final  vote,  fifteen  of  them  voted  to  ratify  the 
Federal  constitution,  but  one  of  them — John  Evans, 
of  the  county  of  Monongalia — voting  against  it.  The 
final  vote  stood  89  ayes  and  79  noes.  If  the  fifteen 
West  Virginia  members  had  voted  no,  Virginia 
would  not  have  ratified  the  constitution,  and  who 
can  tell  what  effect  such  a  result  would  have  had 
upon  the  formation  of  the  Union? 

In  the  year  1800  there  was  a  busy  population 
which  had  grown  from  55,875  in  1790,  to  78,592  at 
the  close  of  the  century.  Homes  of  thrift  and  in- 
dustry gave  evidence  of  many  years  of  settlement  in 
the  eastern  Pan-Handle  and  along  the  Upper  Poto- 
mac, while  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Ohio,  cabin 
homes  dotted  the  landscape.  Thirteen  of  the  pres- 
ent counties — Hampshire,  Berkeley,  Monongalia, 
Ohio,  Greenbrier,  Harrison,  Hardy,  Kandolph,  Pen- 
dleton,  Kanawha,  Brooke,  Wood  and  Monroe — then 
had  an  existence;  and  Wheeling,  West  Liberty, 
Wellsburg,  Clarksburg,  Parkersburg,  Martinsburg, 
Lewisbnrg,  Eomney,  Charles  Town,  Shepherdstown, 
Point  Pleasant  and  Charlestown,  had  become  towns 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  353 

of  importance  for  that  day.  Another  decade  passed 
away  and  brought  the  year  1810,  at  which  time  the 
population  had  grown  to  105,469.  The  first  news- 
paper published  in  West  Virginia — The  Potomac 
Guardian  and  Berkeley  Advertiser — had  been 
founded  at  Martinsburg  in  1789,  and  now  a  half 
dozen  more  had  been  established  in  other  towns. 
Randolph  Academy  at  Clarksburg,  the  western  rep- 
resentative of  William  and  Mary  College,  was 
founded  in  1787;  this  had  been  followed  by  other 
academic  schools  at  Shepherdstown,  Charles  Town, 
West  Union  and  Lewisburg,  while  a  system  of  "Old 
Field  Schools"  had  grown  up  in  rural  districts  un- 
der the  Virginia  School  Law  of  1796. 

Western  Virginia  in  the  War  of  1812. 

When  the  second  war  with  England — that  of  1812 
— began,  West  Virginia  was  ready,  as  she  had  been 
when  the  war  of  the  Eevolution  commenced.  On 
April  10,  1812,  President  Madison  issued  a  call  for 
100,000  men,  and  five  days  later  the  secretary  of 
war  informed  Gov.  James  Barbour  that,  of  this  num- 
ber, Virginia's  quota  was  12,000.  Maj.  Samuel  Mc- 
Guire,  of  Bomney,  Hampshire  county,  was  the  first 
West  Virginian  who  tendered  his  services  to  the 
governor.  He  said:  "Whenever  we  are  compelled 
by  the  insolent  and  perfidious  conduct  of  a  foreign 
government  to  relinquish  the  happy  situation  in 
which  our  country  has  so  long  flourished,  and  resort 
to  war,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  every  citizen  to  make 
a  solemn  declaration  of  his  determination  to  support 
his  government  in  the  prosecution  of  such  a  war  to 
the  utmost  limits  of  his  means."  Capt.  James 
Faulkner's  Artillery  Company  of  Martinsburg, 
Berkeley  county,  was  the  first  West  Virginia  or- 
ganization ordered  into  service,  and  the  second  was 
a  company  of  Light  Infantry  of  the  same  county; 


354        THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

it  belonged  to  the  Sixty-seventh  Eegiment  of  Militia, 
of  which  Elisha  Boyd  was  colonel.  On  May  21  Cap- 
tain Buckmaster's  company  of  Light  Infantry  was 
ready  to  march  from  Jefferson  county,  and  Capt. 
Carver  Willis  was  enrolling  another  at  the  same 
place.  In  this  month  Capt.  Nimrod  Sanders,  com- 
manding a  cavalry  company,  and  Capt.  James  Laid- 
ley  at  the  head  of  a  rifle  company,  both  of  Parkers- 
burg,  Wood  county,  informed  Governor  B  arbour 
that  they  were  ready  for  service.  In  July,  Capt. 
Samuel  McClure's  cavalry  company,  eighty  strong, 
of  Wheeling,  was  waiting  orders  to  march.  On 
August  27  Capt.  John  Connell  wrote  General  Biggs 
that  he  only  awaited  his  orders  to  march  with  the 
Brooke  county  Volunteers.  On  the  receipt  of  the 
news  of  the  surrender  of  Detroit  by  General  Hull, 
250  men  of  the  Northern  Pan-Handle  assembled  at 
Wellsburg,  Brooke  county,  and  declared  their  readi- 
ness to  march  to  the  northwest  under  the  leadership 
of  Captain  Connell.  There  were  no  provisions  and 
a  deficiency  in  arms,  but  James  Marshall,  George 
Getter,  Robert  Hartford,  William  Wattenbee  and 
Jacob  De  Camp,  men  of  means,  offered  to  furnish  all 
supplies  and  await  payment  from  the  National 
government.  Home-woven  linen  was  purchased,  and 
Wellsburg  women  made  it  into  tents  and  knapsacks. 
But  it  was  deemed  best  to  consult  the  governor  as  to 
this  action,  and  await  a  later  movement. 

But  West  Virginia  was  to  have  a  distinct  part  in 
the  second  war  with  England.  On  Sept.  1, 1812,  Mr. 
Eustis,  secretary  of  war,  informed  Governor  Bar- 
bour  of  the  order  of  the  President  to  him  to  call  out 
and  equip,  in  addition  to  the  state's  quota  of  12,000 
troops,  1,500  more  destined  to  cooperate  with  the 
northwestern  army,  and  to  have  these  troops  con- 
venient for  their  march  to  the  western  frontier  of 
Ohio.  Governor  Barbour  hastened  to  comply  with 


WEST  VIEGINIA,  1750-1861.  355 

this  order.  He  determined  to  raise  these  troops  west 
of  the  Alleghanies,  that  is,  in  West  Virginia,  and 
accordingly  informed  the  military  officers  of  that 
region  of  this  intention.  Point  Pleasant,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha  Eiver,  in  Mason 
county,  was  fixed  as  the  place  of  rendezvous,  and  the 
troops  ordered  to  proceed  thither.  Brig.-Gen.  Joel 
Leftwich,  of  Bedford  county,  Virginia,  a  veteran  of 
the  Revolution,  who  had  been  wounded  at  Guilford, 
was  ordered  over  the  mountains  to  take  command 
of  the  brigade  collecting  at  Point  Pleasant.  He 
reached  his  destination  at  3.00  p.  M.,  Sept.  26,  1812, 
where  he  found  825  men,  officers  included;  detach- 
ments were  arriving  almost  daily;  none  were  there 
from  the  counties  of  Hampshire,  Hardy,  Monon- 
galia  or  Randolph,  but  he  understood  they  were  on 
the  march  and  were  expected  in  five  or  six  days. 
On  September  15,  Capt.  John  Connell,  of  Brooke 
county,  who  had  been  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
colonel,  and  who  had  received  orders  to  join  General 
Leftwich  at  Point  Pleasant,  issued  orders  to  the 
militia  captains  to  assemble  at  "Wellsburg  in  that 
county  on  the  22d  ensuing.  On  the  same  day  he 
wrote  Governor  Barbour,  saying:  "The  sons  of  the 
northwest  corner  of  the  state  will  do  their  duty." 
He  said  his  staff  was  complete,  and  formed  of  gen- 
tlemen fit  and  capable  of  performing  service;  that 
he,  with  his  troops,  was  going  to  Point  Pleasant  by 
water,  that  being  the  cheapest  and  most  expeditious 
way  of  getting  there;  and  that  his  quartermaster 
was  then  employed  in  placing  the  baggage  on  the 
boats.  He  also  said  that  the  men  in  the  Light  In- 
fantry companies  of  Captains  Wilcoxon  and  Congle- 
ton  and  Captain  McClaney's  Troop  of  Light  Horse 
were  greatly  disappointed  because  they  were  left 
behind.  Colonel  Connell,  with  the  troops  accompany- 
ing him,  arrived  at  Point  Pleasant  on  the  second  day 


356         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

of  October,  1812.  General  Leftwich  writing  Gover- 
nor Barbour  ten  days  thereafter,  said  that  there 
were  then  1,311  men,  including  officers,  and  that 
only  a  few  small  detachments  were  yet  to  arrive ;  that 
the  army  was  being  organized  and  drilled,  and  that 
it  was  a  fine  body  of  men,  all  in  high  spirits.  He 
had  received  a  letter  from  the  secretary  of  war  or- 
dering him  to  march  as  soon  as  possible  to  the 
frontier  (northwestern)  of  Ohio,  there  to  report  to 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  Northwestern  army. 
On  the  same  day  orders  came  from  General  Harri- 
son dated  "Piqua,  Sept.  27,  1812, "  informing  him 
that  his  destination  was  Wooster,  in  Wayne  county 
(Ohio),  forty-five  miles  west  of  Canton,  and  his  line 
of  march  was  by  way  of  New  Lisbon  and  Canton, 
and  that  at  Wooster  the  Virginians  (West  Virgin- 
ians) would  be  joined  by  a  brigade  from  western 
Pennsylvania,  when  all  would  proceed  to  the  Eapids 
of  the  Maumee,  there  to  form  the  right  wing  of  the 
Army  of  the  Northwest.  General  Leftwich  broke 
camp  at  Point  Pleasant,  and  with  his  troops  as- 
cended the  Ohio,  beyond  Wellsburg,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded through  Columbiana  and  Stark  counties  to 
Wooster,  and  thence  to  the  northwest.  John  Mai- 
lory,  commissary-general  of  General  Leftwich's 
brigade,  writing  Governor  Barbour  from  Delaware, 
Ohio,  under  date  of  Jan.  24,  1813,  informed  him 
that  in  the  past  four  days  he  had  loaded  at  that 
place  700  pack-horses,  60  wagons  and  100  sleds 
with  flour  and  other  quartermaster  stores;  that 
he  was  then  paying  two  dollars  a  bushel  for 
corn,  and  that  the  troops  had  a  sufficient  supply  of 
provisions  and  ammunition.  He  adds:  "I  am  get- 
ting tolerably  fond  of  a  soldier  life  if  it  were  not  for 
leaving  my  family."  Henceforth  the  history  of 
General  Leftwich  and  his  West  Virginia  brigade, 
with  that  from  western  Pennsylvania,  is  part  of  that 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  357 

of  the  Army  of  the  Northwest,  of  which  the  two 
formed  the  right  wing. 

Fight  for  Democratic  Government. 

The  year  1816  is  a  most  important  date  in  the 
history  of  West  Virginia.  The  constitution  adopted 
in  1776  had  been  in  force  for  forty  years,  and  it  had 
been  shown  to  contain  many  defects.  The  unequal 
representation  of  the  counties  gave  to  it  a  sectional 
character — all  having  the  same  representation — two 
members — on  the  floors  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and  this,  too,  regardless  of  wealth  or  population. 
The  constitution  had  been  framed  by  Burgesses  rep- 
resenting a  population  residing  exclusively  in  the 
Tide- Water  Eegion,  and  consequently  at  that  time 
homogeneous  in  character  and  identical  in  interest. 
Now  this  was  changed,  and  with  the  increase  of 
population  and  the  organization  of  counties  west  of 
the  Blue  Kidge,  the  principle  was  reversed,  and 
what  had  been  equal  representation  had  become  un- 
equal representation;  and  while  some  of  the  west- 
ern counties  paid  into  the  public  treasury  many 
times  the  amount  paid  by  some  of  the  eastern  coun- 
ties, the  representation  of  each  was  the  same.  As  an 
example  of  this,  Hampshire  county  in  the  west,  with 
a  population  several  times  as  great  as  Warwick  in 
the  east,  paid  twelve  times  as  much  revenue  to  the 
state,  while  both  had  the  same  representation  in  the 
General  Assembly. 

Then,  too,  the  limitation  of  the  right  of  suffrage 
to  freeholders  and  the  elective  power  vested  in 
the  General  Assembly,  gave  to  the  constitution  an 
aristocratic  character.  These  requirements  secured 
to  the  east  the  balance  of  power  and  rendered  the 
west  almost  powerless  in  all  matters  of  state  legis- 
lation. In  an  assembly  having  204  members,  the 
former  had  124  while  the  latter  had  but  80.  The 


358         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 
i 

result  was  that  the  east  secured  to  itself  nearly 
everything  in  the  character  of  internal  improve- 
ments. For  forty  years  the  state  revenues  had  been 
collected  in  West  Virginia  counties,  and  yet  it  ap- 
peared that  in  1816  but  $6,500  had  been  paid  out 
of  the  public  treasury  for  improvements  west  of 
the  Alleghanies,  while  $123,661.11  had  been  ex- 
pended for  this  purpose  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge ;  and 
that  in  addition  thereto,  in  the  same  time,  $794,700 
of  the  public  monies  had  been  invested  in  the  stocks 
of  the  Bank  of  Virginia  and  the  Farmers'  Bank  of 
Virginia,  both  at  Richmond. 

The  same  year  the  General  Assembly  created  a 
board  of  public  works  consisting  of  thirteen  mem- 
bers, of  which  number  eight  were  to  reside  east  of 
the  Blue  Ridge.  A  belief  obtained  that  the  past  pol- 
icy in  regard  to  public  improvements  would  be  con- 
tinued; there  was  great  dissatisfaction  among  the 
men  who  were  felling  the  forests  from  the  Al- 
leghanies to  the  Ohio,  and  mutterings  of  discontent 
were  heard  on  every  hand.  It  was  evident  that  a 
redress  of  the  grievances  complained  of  could  never 
be  secured  under  the  existing  constitution,  and  from 
1816  the  question  of  a  convention  to  revise  that  docu- 
ment was  agitated.  Much  opposition  was  devel- 
oped, and  it  was  only  after  repeated  failures  cover- 
ing a  period  of  twelve  years  that  the  General  As- 
sembly passed  an  act  in  1828,  providing  for  taking 
the  sense  of  the  voters  upon  the  call  of  such  a  con- 
vention. Later  in  the  year  the  proposition  was  car- 
ried by  a  vote  of  21,896  to  16,646.  Of  the  majority, 
by  far  the  greater  number  of  votes  composing  it 
were  cast  in  the  western  counties  of  the  state,  where 
the  greatest  opposition  to  the  existing  constitution 
had  been  manifested. 

The  convention  assembled  at  Richmond,  Oct.  5, 
1829,  and  it  was  the  most  remarkable  body  of  men 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  359 

that  had  assembled  in  Virginia  since  that  which 
ratified  the  Federal  constitution  in  1788.  It  con- 
sisted of  ninety-six  members,  of  whom  eighteen 
were  from  the  territory  now  embraced  in  West  Vir- 
ginia. They  were  among  the  wisest  and  most  dis- 
creet men  of  the  region  they  represented.  In  the 
organization  of  the  convention,  no  western  man  was 
mentioned  in  connection  with  an  official  position. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  session  the  conflicting 
interests  of  the  two  sections  became  more  and  more 
apparent,  and  the  representatives  from  each  were 
arranged  in  almost  solid  phalanx  on  opposite  sides 
of  nearly  every  question.  At  length  the  work  was 
done,  but  none  of  the  reforms  sought  had  been  se- 
cured. The  right  of  suffrage  was  still  restricted  to 
a  property  qualification,  and  the  west  denied  equal 
representation.  Thus  all  of  the  objectionable  fea- 
tures of  the  old  constitution  were  engrafted  into  the 
new.  Upon  the  final  vote  upon  its  adoption  by  the 
convention,  every  delegate  from  the  west  side  of  the 
Alleghanies  voted  against  it,  with  the  single  excep- 
tion of  Philip  Doddridge,  who  was  unable  to  attend, 
being  ill  at  his  hotel.  But  it  was  in  the  popular  vote 
that  the  opposition  of  the  two  sections — the  east  and 
the  west — was  most  evident.  The  total  vote  cast 
was  41,618,  of  which  26,055  were  for  ratification  and 
15,563  for  rejection.  Every  county  east  of  the  Blue 
Eidge  with  one  exception,  Warwick,  gave  a  majority 
for  ratification,  while  every  county  then  existing  in 
what  is  now  West  Virginia,  with  two  exceptions, 
Jefferson  and  Hampshire,  voted  largely  for  rejec- 
tion. In  them  were  cast  9,758  votes,  of  which  8,375 
were  for  rejection. 

Western  Virginia  From  1830  ta  1860. 
In  1830  twenty-three  of  the  present  West  Virginia 
counties  had  an  existence,  and  towns  and  villages 


360         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

dotted  the  landscape  here  and  there  over  all  the 
state.  By  the  census  of  1830  the  population  was 
176,924,  grown  to  this  number  from  136,768  ten  years 
before.  Its  character  was  that  of  a  vigorous  people. 
In  the  towns  were  the  country  merchants  dealing 
in  every  line  of  merchandise ;  they  were  men  of  char- 
acter and  business  integrity.  .When  a  wholesale 
dealer  in  Baltimore  was  asked  where  he  found  his 
most  reliable  and  trusted  retail  merchants,  he 
promptly  replied:  "In  Western  Virginia."  Here 
were  the  homes  of  lawyers,  physicians  and  minis- 
ters, and  in  each  class  were  men  of  brilliant  intel- 
lects. In  the  river  valleys  and  on  the  rich  uplands 
dwelt  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  population; 
farmers  who,  in  addition  to  producing  wheat,  corn, 
buckwheat,  potatoes  and  fruits  for  their  own  use, 
generally  had  a  surplus  to  sell  to  others;  they  also 
raised  good  horses,  cattle,  sheep  and  hogs.  Still  an- 
other class  dwelt  in  the  "hill  country,"  where  they 
built  their  cabin  homes  and  cleared  a  few  acres  of 
land  on  which  they  produced  grains  and  vegetables 
sufficient  for  their  own  needs  from  year  to  year; 
they  had  but  few  domestic  animals,  and  for  other 
food  they  depended  largely  upon  wild  game  and  fish. 
Periodically  they  visited  the  towns,  there  to  barter 
venison,  skins,  furs,  maple-sugar  and  ginseng,  for 
clothing,  coffee,  medicines,  ammunition  and  other 
necessities,  and  then  returned  to  their  homes  to  fol- 
low the  same  routine  to  the  end  of  their  lives.  All 
classes  were  far  removed  from  the  marts  of  trade, 
and  almost  entirely  isolated  from  society,  yet  they 
carved  out  a  society  of  their  own  and  established  a 
code  of  morals  as  rigid  as  any  known  in  older  lands. 
All  were  united  in  an  effort  to  secure  equal  repre- 
sentation, a  fair  system  of  equal  taxation,  a  just 
share  of  the  public  monies  expended  for  internal  im- 
provements, and  a  suffrage  law  untrammeled  by 


WE8T  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  361 

property  qualifications.  Not  one  of  these  had  been 
guaranteed  to  them  by  the  provisions  of  the  new 
constitution,  and  so  much  were  they  opposed  to  it 
that  state  division  at  once  became  a  theme  of  earn- 
est discussion.  As  the  years  passed  away  the  peo- 
ple assembled  to  give  utterance  to  their  grievances. 
That  of  unequal  representation  in  the  General  As- 
sembly was  among  the  most  serious.  This  was  set 
forth  in  the  action  of  a  great  convention  assembled 
at  Charleston,  in  the  Great  Kanawha  Valley,  Aug. 
9,  1841.  The  object  was  stated  to  be  "for  the  pur- 
pose of  considering  the  inequalities  of  the  repre- 
sentation in  the  General  Assembly,  and  the  deep 
interest  of  the  western  people  in  a  reappointment 
of  the  senators  and  delegates  comprising  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly."  Many  of  the  strongest  men  of 
West  Virginia  were  present.  Judge  Lewis  Sum- 
mers was  made  chairman  and  Alexander  W.  Quar- 
rier  secretary.  The  four  physical  regions,  as  the 
commonwealth  then  existed,  were  regarded  as  polit- 
ical divisions.  These  were  known  as  (1)  the  Tide- 
Water  Region;  (2)  the  Piedmont  Region;  (3)  the 
Valley  Region,  and  (4)  the  Trans- Alleghany  Region, 
the  latter  including  nearly  all  of  West  Virginia.  A 
"memorial"  addressed  to  the  General  Assembly 
set  forth  some  remarkable  facts.  It  was  shown  that 
an  equal  apportionment  of  the  134  members  of  the 
House  of  Delegates  would  give  to  each  a  constitu- 
ency of  5,532  of  white  population,  and  644  of  quali- 
fied voters.  Instead  of  this,  the  following  inequali- 
ties were  shown  to  exist:  the  thirty-one  delegates 
from  the  Trans- Alleghany  Region  each  represented 
a  white  population  of  7,584  persons  and  836  quali- 
fied voters;  twenty-five  delegates  from  the  Valley 
Region  each  represented  a  white  population  of  5,472 
persons  and  644  qualified  voters;  forty-two  dele- 
gates from  the  Piedmont  Region  each  represented 


362        THE  HIBTOBY  OF  WEST  VIBGINIA. 

a  white  population  of  4,738  persons  and  572  quali- 
fied voters;  thirty-six  delegates  from  the  Tide- 
Water  Eegion  each  represented  a  white  population 
of  4,737  persons  and  558  qualified  voters.  In  the 
senate  as  then  existing  there  were  thirteen  members 
from  western  Virginia  and  nineteen  from  eastern 
Virginia.  Each  western  senator  represented  an 
average  population  of  28,903  persons  and  3,256 
qualified  voters,  while  each  eastern  senator  repre- 
sented a  white  population  of  19,448  persons  and 
2,342  qualified  voters. 

Such  was  the  unequal  basis  of  representation  in 
Virginia  at  this  time.  Thus  it  was  that  the  east 
was  enabled  to  secure  large  appropriations  for  in- 
ternal improvements,  while  the  west,  as  asserted  by 
its  people,  was  unable  to  obtain  its  just  proportion 
of  the  public  monies  for  this  purpose.  Many  in- 
stances of  this  were  cited  by  them. 

Once  more  it  became  evident  to  these  people  that 
a  redress  of  their  grievances  could  never  be  obtained 
under  the  existing  constitution,  and  they  demanded 
a  revision  of  that  document.  This  was  provided  for 
by  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly  passed  March  9, 
1850,  and  a  constitutional  convention  assembled  at 
Eichmond  on  October  14  ensuing.  After  months  of 
labor  it  finished  its  work,  and  under  the  provisions 
of  this  constitution  came  a  redress  of  many  of  the 
grievances  complained  of  by  the  people  of  the  west. 
The  right  of  suffrage  was  extended,  taxation  ren- 
dered more  equitable,  and  the  basis  of  representa- 
tion so  remodeled  as  to  secure  to  this  section  greater 
equality  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  and  it  now  seemed 
that  harmony  would  henceforth  exist  between  the 
east  and  the  west.  But  this  was  not  to  be. 

Geographically,  the  east  was  separated  from  the 
west  by  mountain  ranges  which,  so  far  as  trade  and 
commerce  was  concerned,  proved  an  almost  impass- 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1750-1861.  363 

able  barrier.  This  was  so  great  that  no  artificial 
means  of  intercourse  between  the  two  sections  had 
been  made  beyond  a  turnpike  road.  All  trade  and 
commercial  relations  of  the  west  were  with  the  other 
states  and  not  with  eastern  Virginia.  Merchants 
in  western  Virginia  made  their  purchases  in  Balti- 
more, Pittsburg  and  Cincinnati,  and  they  knew  no 
more  of  the  wholesale  trade  of  Richmond  than  they 
did  of  Boston.  The  two  sections  were  entirely  dis- 
similar in  their  social  relations.  While  the  east  was 
largely  interested  in  slaves,  the  west  had  compar- 
atively few  of  them,  and  nearly  all  labor  was  per- 
formed by  freemen.  The  mode  of  taxation,  as  well 
as  that  of  representation  in  the  legislature,  had  long 
been  the  source  of  irritation  and  indeed  of  strife 
and  vexation  between  the  two  sections.  For  many 
years  the  subject  of  internal  improvements  created 
dissension,  the  people  of  the  west  asserting  that 
they  paid  state  revenues  largely  in  excess  of  what 
they  received  in  the  expenditure  of  public  funds  in 
their  section.  Because  of  these  things,  men  residing 
there  who  had  grown  old  and  gray  had  heard  the 
subject  of  state  division  discussed  since  they  were 
children.  Years  came  and  went,  and  brought  John 
Brown's  insurrection  at  Harper's  Ferry.  The  in- 
telligence that  went  out  from  that  place  on  the  morn- 
ing of  Oct.  17,  1859,  sent  a  thrill  of  terror  through- 
out Virginia,  and  astonished  the  whole  nation.  The 
year  1860  found  Virginia  in  a  state  of  the  greatest 
commotion — a  condition  unexampled  in  history — 
unless  it  be  that  of  France  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Revolution.  Governor  Letcher,  influenced  by  the 
pressure  of  the  times,  issued  a  proclamation  con- 
vening the  General  Assembly  in  extra  session. 
That  body  provided  for  a  convention  of  the  people 
of  Virginia.  There  were  152  members,  of  which 
47  were  from  the  west.  Every  student  of  history 


364         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

knows  what  the  action  of  that  body  was,  and  the 
world  knows  the  result.  The  war  came;  it  fur- 
nished the  opportunity  for  the  division  of  the  com- 
monwealth, and  when  the  storm  had  passed  away 
there  were  two  states  where  one  had  been  before. 
And  now,  Virginia — the  Mother — and  West  Virginia 
— the  Daughter — reside  upon  the  ancient  estate. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Aler,  F.  Vernon:  History  of  Martinsburg  and  Berkeley 
County  (Hagerstown,  Md.,  1888);  Atkinson,  George  W. :  History  of  Kana- 
wha  County  (Charleston,  1876);  Bickley,  George  W.  L.:  History  of  the 
Settlement  and  Indian  Wars  of  Tazewett  County  (Cincinnati,  1852); 
Breckenridge,  H.  M. :  Recollections  of  Persons  and  Places  in  the  West  in 
1792  (Philadelphia,  1868);  Bruce,  Thomas:  Heritage  of  Trans-Allegheny 
Pioneers  (Baltimore,  1894);  Cranmer,  Gibson  Lamb:  History  of  the  Up- 
per Ohio  VaUey  (Madison,  Wis.,  1890),  History  of  Wheeling  City  and  Ohio 
County  (Chicago,  1902);  Cutright,  W.  B.:  History  of  Upshur  County 
(1907);  Doddridge,  Joseph:  Notes  on  the  Early  Settlement  and  Indian 
Wars  of  the  Western  Parts  of  Virginia  from  1763  to  1783,  Inclusive  (Wheel- 
ing, 1824);  DeHass,  Wills:  History  of  the  Early  Settlements  and  Indian 
Wars  in  Northwestern  Virginia  (Wheeling,  1851);  Dunnington,  George 
A.:  History  and  Progress  of  the  County  of  Marion  (Fairmont,  W.  Va., 
1880);  Ely,  William:  History  of  the  Big  Sandy  Valley  (Cattlattsburg,  Ky., 
1887);  Fernow,  Berthold;  The  Ohio  VaUey  in  Colonial  Days  (Albany, 
N.  Y.,  1890);  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips:  The  Prelude  to  Harper's  Ferry 
(Andover,  Mass.,  1891);  Gibbons,  Alvaro  F.:  A  Century  of  Progress;  or,  A 
Historical  Souvenir  of  Wood  County  (Morgantown,  1899);  Hale,  John  P. : 
Trans-AUeghany  Pioneers  (Cincinnati,  1887);  Jacob,  John  G.:  Brooke 
County:  Being  a  Record  of  Prominent  Events  in  that  County  (Wellsburg, 
W.  Va.,  1882);  Kercheval,  Samuel:  History  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley 
(Winchester,  Va.,  1833);  Lewis,  Virgil  A.:  History  of  West  Virginia  (Phil- 
adelphia, 1889);  Lewis,  Hale  and  Hogg  (joint  authors):  History  of  the 
Great  Kanawha  Valley  (Madison,  Wis.,  1891);  Loudermilk,  Will  J.:  His- 
tory of  Cumberland  and  Braddock's  Expedition  (Washington,  1878);  Mar- 
shall, O.  S.:  History  of  De  Celeron's  Expedition  to  the  Ohio  in  1749  (Al- 
bany, 1887);  Mayer,  Brantz:  Ta-gah-ju-te:  or  Logan  the  Indian  and  Cap- 
tain Michael  Cresap  (1867);  Maxwell,  Hu.:  History  of  Tucker  County 
(Kingwood,  1884),  History  of  Hampshire  County  (Morgantown,  1897), 
History  of  Randolph  County  (Morgantown,  1899);  Moore,  James:  The 
Captives  of  Abb's  Valley  (Philadelphia,  1840);  Norris,  J.  E.:  History  of 
the  Lower  Shenandoah  Valley  (Chicago,  1890);  Newton,  J.  H.:  History  of 
the  Pan-Handle  (Wheeling,  1879);  Pritts,  J.:  Mirror  of  the  Olden  Time 
Border  Life  (Chambersburg,  Pa.);  Panghorn,  J.  G.:  History  of  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Railroad  (Chicago,  1883);  Peterkin,  George  W.:  Records  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  West  Virginia  (Charleston,  1902); 
Price,  William  T.:  History  of  Pocahontas  County  (Marlinton,  1899);  Rid- 
path,  James:  Echoes  from  Harper's  Ferry  (Boston,  1860):  Sparks,  Jared: 
The  Writings  of  Washington,  Vol.  II.  (Boston,  1846);  Seabright,  Thomas 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  365 

B.:  TheOldPike,  A  History  of  tfie  National  Road  (Uniontown,  Pa.,  1894); 
Stuart,  John:  Memoirs  of  the  Indian  Wars  and  Other  Occurrences  (Rich- 
mond, 1832);  Safford,  William  H.:  The  Blennerhassett  Papers  (Cincin- 
nati, 1861);  Thwaites,  Reuben  Gold,  and  Kellogg,  Louise  Phelps:  Docu- 
mentary History  of  Dunmore's  War  (Madison,  1905),  (eds.)  The  Revolu- 
tion on  the  Upper  Ohio,  1775-1777  (Madison,  1908);  Withers,  Alexander 
Scott:  Chronicles  of  Border  Warfare:  or  A  History  of  the  Settlement  by  the 
Whites  of  Northwestern  Virginia  and  the  Indian  Wars  and  Massacres  in 
that  Section  of  the  State  (Clarksburg,  1831);  Wiley,  Samuel  T.:  History  of 
Preston  County  (Kingwood,  W.  Va.,  1880),  History  of  Monongalia 
County  (Kingwood,  1883);  Waddell,  Joseph  A.:  Annals  of  Augusta 
County  (Richmond,  1888);  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers  (11  vols., 
Richmond,  1875  et  seq.);  The  Washington-Crawford  Letters  Concerning 
Western  Lands  (Cincinnati,  1877);  Miller,  James  H.:  History  of  Sum- 
mers County  (1908). 

VIKGIL  A.  LEWIS, 

Historian  and  Archivist  of  the  State  of  West  Virginia^ 


CHAPTER  II. 

WEST  VIRGINIA— STEPS   TO   STATEHOOD, 
1861-1863. 

The  Two  Virginias  Before  Divorce. 

An  intelligent  view  of  the  events  resulting  in  se- 
vering in  twain  the  original  state  cannot  be  obtained 
without  understanding  the  relations  existing  be- 
tween the  two  Virginias  prior  to  the  war.  It  is  a 
general  impression  that  the  separation  was  caused 
by  questions  growing  out  of  the  war.  But  the  war 
was  not  the  cause  but  only  the  occasion  for  the  sepa- 
ration. The  question  of  dividing  the  state  of  Vir- 
ginia on  the  lines  finally  accomplished  had  been  a 
mooted  question  for  fifty  years  prior  to  the  war.  It 
had  agitated  the  legislatures  and  conventions  of  the 
state.  It  had  been  a  subject  of  discussion  in  political 
campaigns  and  in  party  organizations.  It  had  so 


366        THE  HrSTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

embittered  the  population  of  the  two  territorial  sec- 
tions as  to  threaten  the  public  peace. 

The  causes  which  developed  this  situation  between 
the  two  sections  need  only  to  be  enumerated  to  ap- 
pear conclusive.  In  the  first  place  we  have  the 
anomaly  of  a  state  exercising  sovereignty  over  a 
territory  so  geographically  divided  by  a  chain  of 
mountains  as  to  effectually  cut  off  communication 
between  its  population  of  the  one  side  and  the  other. 
The  ranges  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  erected 
their  lofty  crests  and  stretched  themselves  from  one 
end  to  the  other.  They  were  impenetrable  and  im- 
passable by  any  ordinary  means  of  transportation. 
The  state  government  was  administered  from  Rich- 
mond, and  its  edicts  carried  around  through  the 
District  of  Columbia  and  the  state  of  Maryland  to 
the  western  territory  under  its  jurisdiction.  It  was 
facetiously  said  that  when  a  sheriff  from  one  of  the 
western  counties  had  traveled  to  his  state  capital 
to  settle  his  accounts,  he  had  just  enough  left  of  the 
revenues  collected  to  pay  his  expenses  back  home. 
There  was  not  only  no  communication  between  the 
two  peoples,  but  there  was  little  or  no  acquaintance, 
and  absolutely  no  commercial  relations.  Western 
Virginia  belonged  by  nature,  not  to  eastern  Virginia, 
but  to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Its  natural  out- 
lets to  market  were  south  and  west,  with  Cincinnati 
and  Chicago,  with  Pittsburg  on  the  north,  and  with 
Baltimore  on  the  east. 

Nature  had  divided  Virginia.  When  the  bound- 
aries between  the  states  of  the  Union  were  being 
fixed — as  far  back  as  1781 — there  was  a  controversy 
in  the  Federal  Congress  as  to  the  western  boundary 
of  Virginia.  It  was  then  claimed  that  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  should  constitute  her  real  boundary,  as 
it  was  her  natural  boundary.  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, Maryland  and,  perhaps,  other  states,  were  in- 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  367 

clined  to  confine  Virginia  to  the  Alleghany  boundary. 
Daniel  Webster  had,  thirty  years  before  the  war, 
with  prophetic  forecast,  advised  the  South  if  it 
withdrew  from  the  Union  that  the  separation  would 
leave  Virginia  dissevered,  for  the  natural  line  of 
division  would  leave  western  Virginia  allied  with 
the  states  of  the  North  rather  than  the  South. 

Moreover,  the  people  of  eastern  and  western  Vir- 
ginia were  never  homogeneous.  They  were  as  far 
apart  in  tastes  and  temperament  as  by  geographical 
conditions.  Their  peoples  were  of  a  different  an- 
cestry, different  habits,  different  tastes,  different 
manners  and  modejstof  life. 

The  bringing  together,  therefore,  under  one  state 
government  of  twd  peoples  so  diverse  in  their  tastes 
and  character  as  tfce  eastern  and  western  Virginians 
was  like  an  attempt  to  fuse  an  aristocracy  and  a 
democracy  into  one  homogeneous  whole.  Naturally, 
they  did  not  mix.  Geographically,  they  could  not 
mix. 

The  situation  was  aggravated  by  the  existing 
system  of  slavery.  Slavery  was  a  profitable  insti- 
tution east  of  the  mountains;  it  was  of  but  little 
practical  value  west  of  the  mountains.  That  section 
of  the  state  west  of  the  Alleghanies  was  best  adapted 
to  stock-raising,  grazing,  growth  of  the  cereals,  to 
manufacturing,  and  such  industries  as  could  not 
profitably  employ  slave  labor.  Its  people  cared  very 
little  for  the  institution  on  economical  grounds,  and 
were  somewhat  awry  with  it  on  moral  considera- 
tions. They  would  not  have  invited  it  as  an  original 
proposition.  They  accepted  it  like  many  other 
things  that  were  thrust  upon  them  by  the  East.  In 
the  East  it  was  interwoven  with  all  their  domestic 
and  political  institutions,  and  was  maintained  with- 
out any  moral  compunctions.  It  had  shaped  and 
moulded  their  laws  and  public  policy,  as  well  as 


368        THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

their  private  interests  and  modes  of  life.  The  west- 
ern section  was  bordered  its  entire  length  by  free 
soil,  which  made  the  escape  of  the  slave  easy.  He 
need  but  cross  the  Ohio  Kiver,  or  step  across  the 
invisible  line  into  Pennsylvania,  to  find  freedom 
from  his  bonds. 

Moreover,  the  preponderance  of  slave  property  in 
the  East  gave  rise  to  a  very  unsatisfactory  basis  of 
representation  between  the  East  and  West  that  was 
a  continual  source  of  irritation  and  dissatisfaction. 

The  simple  enumeration  of  the  foregoing  facts  and 
conditions  establishes  the  statement  with  which  we 
introduced  this  subject,  that  the  war  was  not  the 
cause  but  only  furnished  the  opportunity  for  the 
severance  of  West  Virginia  from  the  mother  state. 
The  fruit  was  already  ripe,  and  needed  only  that 
the  tree  be  shaken.  There  was  no  such  unnatural 
and  incongruous  alliance  existing  in  the  Union  of 
states  as  that  which  existed  between  the  two  Vir- 
ginias. It  is  not  strange  that  the  two  sections 
parted.  It  is  strange  that  they  remained  together 
as  long  as  they  did. 

Steps  Leading  to  the  "Parting  sf  the  Ways." 

The  Virginia  Secession  Convention,  so  called, 
which  assembled  at  Eichmond  on  Feb.  13,  1861,  was 
in  continuous  session  from  that  date  until  the  first 
of  May,  when  it  adjourned  to  meet  again  on  June  12. 

When  the  convention  reassembled,  eighty-one 
delegates  responded  to  the  roll  call.  It  was  not  a 
"Secession  Convention"  when  it  first  met  in  Feb- 
ruary, but  it  was  now.  An  ordinance  of  secession 
had  been  already  adopted  on  April  17  by  a  vote  of 
eighty-eight  to  fifty-five,  before  the  recess  of  the 
convention,  and  had  been  submitted  to  the  people 
for  ratification  and  voted  upon,  but  no  official  return 
of  the  vote  appears  in  the  journal  of  the  convention. 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  369 

The  business  of  the  convention  was  now  to  put  that 
ordinance  into  effect. 

There  are  but  two  or  three  of  the  names  of  the 
delegates  from  western  Virginia  appearing  among 
those  signed  to  that  ordinance.  Its  passage  had 
been  the  signal  for  their  withdrawal  from  the  con- 
vention, and  in  some  instances  of  hasty  flight  to 
more  friendly  and  safe*  environments  west  of  the 
mountains.  After  the  convention  had  looked  itself 
over  it  proceeded  to  pass  the  following  resolution : 

"Resolved,  that  Wm.  G.  Brown,  James  Burley,  John  S.  Burdette, 
John  S.  Carlile,  Marshall  M.  Dent;  Ephraim  B.  Hall,  Chester  D.  Hub- 
bard,  John  J.  Jackson,  James  C.  McGrew,  George  Me.  Porter,  Chapman 
J.  Stewart,  Campbell  Tarr,  and  Waitman  T.  Willey,  be,  and  are  hereby 
expelled  from  this  convention,  and  that  their  seats  as  members  of  the 
convention  be,  and  are  hereby  declared  vacant." 

The  delegates  named  in  "the  foregoing  resolution 
were  those  representing  western  Virginia,  and  who 
had  voted  nay  on  the  adoption  of  the  ordinance  on 
its  passage  in  April  previous.  It  does  not  appear 
from  the  resolution  that  they  had  been  guilty  of  any 
other  offense  that  would  deprive  them  of  their  seats, 
or  that  they  had  voluntarily  resigned,  or  were  to  be 
allowed  to  resign — the  language  of  the  resolution 
was  that  they  "be  expelled."  And  the  resolution 
was  passed. 

The  fact  was  that  after  the  passage  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  secession  the  delegates  named  in  that  reso- 
lution, from  western  Virginia,  realized  that  their 
influence  and  usefulness  in  that  body  were  ended. 
The  bitterness,  the  malice,  the  suspicion,  the  vin- 
dictiveness  and  the  spirit  of  violence  incident  to  the 
outbreak  of  a  civil  war  were  rife  among  the  popu- 
lace of  Richmond. 

Under  these  conditions  the  western  delegates  de- 
termined that  it  was  the  part  of  prudence  for  them 
to  get  away  from  Richmond  as  speedily  and  quickly 
as  possible.  But  even  this  was  a  difficult  and  dan- 

Vol.  1—24. 


370        THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

gerous  undertaking.  After  procuring  written  pass- 
ports from  Governor  Letcher,  this  little  party  of 
"refugees,"  so  to  speak,  made  their  journey  to 
Strasburg  and  thence  down  the  valley  by  way  of 
"Winchester  to  Harper's  Ferry,  making  many  nar- 
row escapes  from  the  mobs  collected  at  different 
points  along  the  way. 

The  arrival  at  their  homes  of  the  western  dele- 
gates was  the  occasion  of  general  agitation  of  the 
whole  population  of  western  Virginia.  They  were 
quick  to  comprehend  the  desperate  character  of  the 
situation,  but  unable  at  once  to  unite  on  a  common 
course  to  meet  it.  As  in  all  such  crises,  there  was 
at  first  great  confusion  and  diversity  of  opinion  in 
the  public  mind.  Public  meetings  of  the  people  in 
the  various  counties  were  the  order  of  the  hour. 
The  returned  delegates  were  active  in  organizing 
these  meetings. 

The  first  of  these  meetings  was  held  at  Morgan- 
town,  the  home  of  Hon.  W.  T.  Willey,  who  had  ar- 
rived fresh  from  the  Eichmond  convention,  and  his 
constituents  were  eager  to  learn  from  him  the  real 
situation  and  his  views  as  to  the  most  expedient 
course  to  be  taken  by  the  people  of  western  Vir- 
ginia, who  were  not  in  accord  with  the  action  of  the 
Secession  Convention.  The  temper  of  the  citizens 
of  this  locality  expressed  at  this  first  meeting  was 
representative  of  the  prevailing  sentiment  through- 
out the  western  section.  They  entered  a  solemn 
protest  against  the  secession  of  Virginia ;  denounced 
such  action  as  treason  against  the  government  of  the 
United  States;  declared  their  unalterable  opposi- 
tion to  such  a  course;  that  they  would  not  follow 
Virginia,  but  would  dissolve  their  civil  and  political 
relations  with  the  East,  and  commended  the  firmness 
of  western  delegates  in  resisting  secession  from  the 
Union. 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  371 

Similar  meetings  were  held  in  a  number  of  coun- 
ties. They  served  to  give  character  and  direction 
to  the  forming  opinions  and  judgment  of  the  masses 
of  the  people.  Notable  among  these  meetings  was 
one  held  at  Clarksburg  on  April  22,  which  was  con- 
vened at  the  instance  of  the  delegate  from  that 
county,  Hon.  John  S.  Carlile,  and  which  gave  the 
first  practical  turn  to  the  course  of  affairs.  This 
meeting  adopted  a  series  of  resolutions  denouncing 
and  repudiating  the  course  of  the  Eichmond  con- 
vention, and  recommended  to  the  people  of  each  of 
the  counties  of  western  Virginia  to  appoint  five  dele- 
gates 'to,  meet  in  convention  at  Wheeling  on  May  13 
following,  "to  consult  and  determine  on  such  action 
as  the  people  of  northwestern  Virginia  should  take 
in  the  present  fearful  emergency." 

Out  of  this  proposition  came  the  convention  at 
Wheeling  known  as  the  "Mass-Meeting"  or  "Mass- 
Convention,"  which  took  the  initiative  step  toward 
the  dismemberment  of  Virginia  and  the  erection  of 
a  new  state.  Hither  had  come,  in  large  numbers, 
the  representatives  of  the  people  of  the  western 
counties  to  confer  and  determine  upon  a  course  of 
action  that  involved  momentous  results.  These 
delegates,  it  is  true,  had  no  very  well  defined  idea  of 
what  they  were  there  for.  Their  mission  had  not 
been  exactly  defined  or  determined.  It  was  an  ir- 
regular kind  of  proceeding.  No  statute  law  or  con- 
stitution authorized  or  gave  jurisdiction  to  the  con- 
vention. No  official  authority  could  be  found  for  the 
calling  of  the  convention  or  the  appointment  of  dele- 
gates. It  was  one  of  the  steps  in  a  revolution. 

The  convention  was  formally  opened  and  orga- 
nized; officers  were  elected,  committees  appointed, 
and  all  the  machinery  of  a  parliamentary  body  was 
soon  in  operation.  The  ideas  and  plans  of  the  indi- 
vidual delegates  were  soon  disclosed  by  a  torrent  of 


372         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

resolutions.  But  amidst  conflicting  views,  one  fact 
was  developed  beyond  doubt,  and  that  was  that  if 
there  was  any  approach  to  unanimity  on  any  course, 
it  was  for  a  separation  from  the  old  commonwealth 
and  the  formation  of  a  new  state  out  of  the  western 
counties. 

This  was  the  only  specific  scheme  that  had  been 
agitated  among  the  delegates.  John  S.  Carlile  was 
the  author  and  open  advocate  of  this  measure,  and 
he  had  done  no  little  missionary  work  in  its  behalf. 
The  idea  of  severing  relations  with  the  old  state 
seemed  best  to  satisfy  the  vindictive  spirit  of  the 
hour.  It  became  the  rallying  cry  of  the  convention. 

Thus  it  soon  came  to  be  not  so  much  a  question  of 
what  the  convention  desired  to  do,  as  how  to  do  it. 
Here  was  a  purpose  and  a  proposition  to  erect  a 
new  state.  It  was  a  movement  without  precedent 
in  the  history  of  the  states.  Other  states  had  been 
formed,  but  no  state  had  been  arbitrarily  carved  out 
of  the  territory  of  another  state. 

Mr.  Carlile  came  forward  as  the  leader  of  the 
scheme  in  the  convention.  His  scheme  for  the 
formation  of  a  new  state  was  purely  revolutionary 
in  its  entire  conception.  The  next  day  after  the  con- 
vention opened  he  introduced  the  following  resolu- 
tion which  became  the  basis  of  the  debate  which 
ensued : 

"Resolved,  that  the  committee  on  state  and  federal  relations  be  in- 
structed to  report  an  ordinance  declaring  that  the  connection  of  the 
counties  of  this  state  composing  the  tenth  and  eleventh  congressional 
districts,  to  which  shall  be  added  the  county  of  Wayne,  with  the  other 
portion  of  this  state  is  hereby  dissolved,  and  that  the  people  of  said 
counties  are  in  the  possession  and  exercise  of  all  the  rights  of  sovereignty 
which  belong  and  appertain  to  a  free  and  independent  state  in  the 
United  States  and  subject  to  the  constitution  thereof;  and  that  said 
committee  be  instructed  to  report  a  constitution  and  form  of  govern- 
ment for  the  said  state,  to  be  called  the  state  of  New  Virginia;  and  also 
that  they  report  a  declaration  of  causes  which  have  impelled  the  people 
of  said  counties  thus  to  dissolve  their  connection  with  the  rest  of  the 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  373 

state,  together  with  an  ordinance  declaring  that  said  constitution  and 
form  of  government  shall  take  effect  and  be  an  act  of  this  day  when  the 
consent  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  legislature  of  the 
state  of  Virginia  are  obtained  as  provided  for  by  Sec.  3,  Article  4  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

As  already  noted,  the  above  proposition  was  es- 
sentially and  purely  revolutionary  in  its  character. 
It  ran  counter  to  every  principle  and  provision  of 
our  system  of  government  for  the  creation  of  a  new 
state.  But  to  the  large  majority  of  the  members  of 
this  convention,  matters  of  constitutional  law  and 
government  were  new  and  unpalatable  at  this  time. 
Yet  there  were  a  few  men  among  the  delegates  who 
looked  beyond  the  present  and  who  knew  that  the 
scheme  of  Mr.  Carlile,  carried  to  its  ultimate  end, 
would  only  result  in  defeat  and  failure  of  their 
cherished  object. 

In  this  exigency,  Hon.  W.  T.  "Willey  As  put  for- 
ward to  stem  the  tide  and  undertake  me  bold  and 
seemingly  hopeless  task  of  getting  the  convention  to 
think.  Mr.  Willey  was  the  opposite  of  Mr.  Carlile 
in  character  and  temperament.  He  was  less  optim- 
istic, more  conservative,  and  as  a  lawyer  he  had  a 
clear  view  of  the  issues  involved,  as  well  as  a 
natiural  bias  for  a  legal  and  orderly  proceeding.  He 
and  Mr.  Carlile  were  fresh  from  the  Richmond  con- 
vention, where  they  had  together  wrestled  manfully 
to  prevent  the  secession  of  Virginia,  and  while  they 
were  now  equally  earnest  in  their  desire  to  thwart 
the  secession  movement  in  the  East,  they  were  to 
become  trhe  chief  opponents  in  a  memorable  debate. 

Mr.  Willey 's*  appearance  in  the  role  of  an  oppo- 
nent of  the  pending  proposition  was  the  signal  for 
an  outburst  of  angry  denunciation  both  from  the 
convention  and  the  crowds  in  the  lobby  and  in  the 
streets.  THey  called  him  a  traitor  and  a  secessionist. 
Mr.  Willey  ihrew  himself  into  the  debate  with  all 
his  native  eloquence  and  clearness  of  statement,  and 


374         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

finally  gained  the  ear  of  the  convention.  He  de- 
clared that  he  would  never  lend  himself  to  a  revo- 
lutionary or  an  insurrectionary  means  of  accom- 
plishing an  object  which  he  thought  could  be  accom- 
plished according  to  law.  He  pointed  out  with  great 
force  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  constitution  gov- 
erning the  formation  of  a  new  state.  He  cited  Sec. 
3  of  Art.  4,  which  declares : 

"New  states  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into  this  Union;  but 
no  new  state  shall  be  formed  or  erected  within  the  jurisdiction  of  any 
other  state;  nor  any  state  formed  by  the  junction  of  two  or  more  states, 
or  parts  of  states,  without  the  consent  of  the  legislatures  of  the  states 
concerned,  as  well  as  of  the  Congress." 

He  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Carlile's 
plan  proposed  to  call  a  new  state  into  existence  by  a 
simple  edict  of  the  convention.  He  argued  that  the 
eonvention^iere  assembled  could  not  predicate  any 
authority  for  such  a  precipitate  proceeding  upon 
the  call  of  the  people  they  represented;  that  the 
delegates  had  not  been  appointed  with  that  view,  or 
empowered  to  act  with  such  extreme  vigor ;  that  this 
was  but  an  informal  meeting  of  the  people,  not 
legally  convened,  and  could  not  bind  the  people 
either  in  law  or  reason,  or  by  any  known  rule  or 
precedent;  and  above  all,  that  the  Federal  govern- 
ment would  not  recognize  a  state  created  thus,  be- 
cause it  was  not  after  the  mode  prescribed  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  He  said  the  pro- 
ceeding, if  carried  out,  would  be  "triple  treason"— 
treason  against  the  state  of  Virginia,  treason 
against  the  United  States,  and  treason  against  the 
Confederate  government  if  that  should  succeed  in 
maintaining  itself.  In  other  words,  there  was  no 
existing  government  that  did  not  assume  a  legal 
status,  except  the  one  proposed  for  the  new  state. 

This  debate  continued  three  days  with  great  earn- 
estness, and  the  result  was  marvelous  as  an  illus- 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  375 

tration  of  how  a  body  like  that  may  be  turned  about 
from  a  fixed  and  resolute  purpose  to  accept  and 
adopt  that  which  it  had  almost  unanimously  and 
stubbornly  opposed. 

When  the  "Mass-Convention"  had  changed  its 
mind  on  the  Carlile  plan,  it  turned  about  to  reach 
the  same  object  in  another  way.  Hon.  F.  H.  Pier- 
point  came  forward  with  some  resolutions  which 
were  in  the  nature  of  a  substitute  for  the  Carlile 
plan,  providing  for  holding  a  convention  on  June  11 
following,  to  which  delegates  should  be  regularly 
chosen  by  all  the  loyal  counties  and  which  should 
devise  such  measures  as  the  welfare  of  the  people 
of  the  northwestern  counties  should  demand.  This 
proposition  left  all  questions  open  as  to  what  that 
subsequent  convention  should  do.  It  was  confidently 
believed  that  any  convention  would  favor  a  separa- 
tion from  the  old  state,  but  the  particular  plan  for 
accomplishing  that  object  should  be  determined  by 
the  convention  itself. 

This  proposition  met  with  the  approval  of  the 
convention,  and  it  made  a  call  upon  all  the  western 
counties  disposed  to  cooperate  to  send  delegates  to 
the  convention  appointed  for  June  11.  The  whole 
matter  was  put  in  the  hands  of  a  well  chosen  exe- 
cutive committee  and  amidst  a  blaze  of  enthusiasm, 
and  the  singing  of  the  "Star  Spangled  Banner," 
this  remarkable  and  historic  convention  adjourned, 
after  having  set  in  motion  events  which  made  the 
first  chapter  in  the  history  of  a  new  state. 

Reorganizing  the  Virginia  Government. 

The  convention  of  June  11  assembled  in  accord- 
ance with  the  call  of  the  "Mass-Convention." 

Thirty-five  counties  of  the  northwest  were  repre- 
sented, and  had  sent  an  aggregate  of  seventy-seven 
delegates. 


376        THE  HISTORY  OF  .WEST  VIRGINIA. 

The  convention  having  organized,  very  much  the 
same  problems  that  had  confronted  the  previous 
body  immediately  arose.  Two  schemes  were  pre- 
sented, that  of  immediately  forming  a  new  state 
out  of  the  counties  represented  in  the  convention, 
after  the  Carlile  plan,  and  the  other  of  reorganizing 
the  Virginia  state  government  and  assuming  that 
these  counties  represented  in  the  convention  were 
the  state. 

There  were  two  weighty  reasons  for  preferring 
the  latter  proposition.  There  were  enough  far- 
sighted  men  in  the  convention  to  see  that  they  could 
not  have  a  new  state  until  they  could  get  control  of 
the  old  state  so  as  to  give  its  consent,  as  the  consti- 
tution required,  to  forming  a  new  state  out  of  its 
territory.  Moreover,  to  assume  that  they  were 
Virginia  was  the  quickest  and  easiest  course  to  hav- 
ing a  state  government  whether  it  were  a  new  or 
an  old  state. 

The  majority  of  the  convention  soon  shifted  to 
the  support  of  the  proposition  for  reorganizing  the 
Virginia  government  out  of  the  loyal  counties,  va- 
cating the  offices,  taking  possession  of  the  whole 
machinery,  and  calling  the  organization  the  state  of 
Virginia.  They  could  thus  have  a  state  already 
made,  already  recognized,  and  quite  sure  of  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  Federal  government  in  preference  to 
that  purporting  to  be  the  government  of  Virginia 
at  the  city  of  Eichmond.  The  shrewd  and  far- 
sighted  men  who  had  now  come  into  control  of  affairs 
realized  that  they  had  immediate  need  of  a  state 
government  ready  made,  and  they  had  special  need 
of  control  of  the  Virginia  government.  It  was  the 
state  of  Virginia  that  was  to  be  dismembered,  and 
the  consent  of  the  state  of  Virginia  was  the  first  es- 
sential step  to  the  legality  of  this  purpose.  What 
hope  had  they,  indeed,  of  the  consent  of  the  Kich- 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  377 

mond  government  to  anything  like  that?  But  if 
they,  west  of  the  mountains,  were  the  state,  it  was 
an  easy  proposition  to  have  the  consent  of  Virginia 
even  to  dividing  it  in  sunder.  To  this  end  the  con- 
vention adopted,  with  great  unanimity,  and  pro- 
mulgated an  address  or  declaration  of  their  motives 
and  purposes,  and  a  statement  of  the  grievances 
which  impelled  them  to  this  course.  They  framed 
and  passed,  without  a  dissenting  vote,  an  ordinance 
which  set  forth  in  detail  the  scheme  for  reorganizing 
the  state  of  Virginia.  The  convention  was  to  ap- 
point a  governor,  lieutenant-governor  and  attorney- 
general,  to  continue  in  office  for  six  months;  a  test 
oath  was  required  of  all  other  officers  then  serving 
under  the  Virginia  government,  and  on  refusal  of 
the  incumbent  to  take  the  oath,  the  governor  was  to 
declare  the  office  vacant  and  appoint  a  successor. 
The  legislature  was  shortly  to  assemble  and  provide 
for  a  speedy  general  election  to  fill  all  the  offices  of 
the  government. 

Under  this  scheme  the  convention  elected  Francis 
H.  Pierpont,  governor;  Daniel  Polsley,  lieutenant- 
governor,  and  James  S.  Wheat,  attorney-general. 

The  convention  then  formally  declared  all  ordi- 
nances, acts,  orders,  resolutions  and  other  proceed- 
ings of  the  Richmond  convention  illegal,  inoperative, 
null  and  void.  With  a  view  of  taking  up  in  earnest 
the  work  of  erecting  a  new  state,  the  convention  ad- 
journed on  June  20,  to  reconvene  at  the  same  place 
on  August  6  following. 

The  Eestored  Government  of  Virginia  in  Operation. 

In  pursuance  of  the  ordinance  of  the  June  conven- 
tion, the  first  legislature  under  the  reorganized  gov- 
ernment of  Virginia  met  at  Wheeling  on  July  1, 1861. 

Governor  Pierpont  sent  in  an  elaborate  message, 
among  other  things,  informing  the  legislature  that 


378        THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

he  had  communicated  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  the  purposes  and  acts  of  the  convention  and 
people  of  the  northwest  counties  in  endeavoring  to 
preserve  the  state  of  Virginia  to  the  Union,  and  had 
received  his  assurance  that  they  should  have  such 
assistance  from  the  Federal  government  as  could 
be  given  under  the  authority  of  the  constitution. 

On  July  9  the  two  houses  proceeded  to  complete 
the  organization  of  the  government  by  filling  the 
offices  that  were  vacant.  They  appointed  various 
state  officers. 

It  appearing  that  K.  M.  T.  Hunter  and  James  M. 
Mason,  senators,  representing  Virginia  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  had  vacated  their  seats  and  were 
engaged  in  the  effort  to  overthrow  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment, the  legislature  proceeded  to  supply  their 
places,  and,  accordingly,  Waitman  T.  Willey  and 
John  S.  Carlile  were  elected  United  States  senators 
from  the  state  of  Virginia.  These  gentlemen  pro- 
ceeded to  Washington,  presented  their  credentials 
from  the  Virginia  government  at  Wheeling,  and 
were  duly  admitted  by  the  United  States  Senate  as 
senators  from  Virginia. 

This  was  the  first  formal  recognition  by  the  Na- 
tional legislature  of  the  validity  of  the  restored 
government. 

On  May  13,  1862,  the  legislature  of  the  restored 
government  passed  an  act  giving  the  formal  con- 
sent of  Virginia  to  the  erection  of  a  new  state  out  of 
her  territory. 

This  territory  included  forty-eight  counties  of 
northwestern  Virginia,  and  made  provision  for  in- 
cluding three  more — Jefferson,  Berkeley  and  Fred- 
erick— when  they  should  vote  to  come  in.  The  first 
two  subsequently  voted  in  favor  of  the  proposition, 
but  the  county  of  Frederick  never  voted  on  it. 

These  fifty  counties  having  given  their  assent  by 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  379 

a  formal  vote  to  the  formation  of  a  new  state,  the 
next  step  was  to  make  a  constitution  for  the  new 
state. 

The  delegates  chosen  for  that  purpose  assembled 
in  convention  at  the  city  of  Wheeling  on  Nov.  26, 
1861.  After  organizing,  it  entered  upon  the  work  of 
framing  a  constitution  for  the  new  state,  and  was 
occupied  with  that  work  for  about  two  and  one-half 
months.  They  made  many  radical  changes  in  the 
constitution  of  the  old  commonwealth. 

The  most  exciting  question  which  arose  in  the 
convention  was  that  relating  to  the  position  which 
the  new  state  would  take  toward  negro  slavery.  The 
question  of  slavery  was  not  a  dead  or  indifferent 
issue  even  in  western  Virginia.  There  were  included 
in  the  population  of  the  forty-eight  counties  repre- 
sented in  the  convention,  at  that  time,  12,771  slaves 
in  a  population  of  334,921  whites — a  very  small  pro- 
portion, it  is  true,  but  enough  to  make  the  property 
value  an  item  worth  considering  to  those  who  owned 
it.  The  convention  determined  that  the  constitution 
should  be  silent  on  the  question  of  slavery,  and  that 
at  the  time  the  constitution  should  be  submitted  to 
a  vote  of  the  people  on  its  adoption,  a  kind  of  side 
vote  should  be  taken  for  emancipation  and  against 
emancipation.  When  the  vote  was  taken  it  was 
6,052  for  emancipation  to  610  against,  or  ten  to  one 
in  favor  of  a  free  state.  The  vote  on  the  adoption 
of  the  constitution  taken  at  the  same  time  was 
18,862  in  favor  to  514  against  it. 

The  legislature  of  the  reorganized  government  of 
Virginia  assembled  on  May  6  following,  and  gave  its 
formal  assent  to  the  formation  and  erection  of  the 
state  of  West  Virginia  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
state  of  Virginia,  "according  to  the  stipulations  and 
provisions  of  the  constitution,'*  which  was  laid  be- 
fore them  by  the  government  as  having  been  adopted 


380         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

by  the  people.  The  act  of  the  legislature  was 
ordered  to  be  transmitted  to  the  senators  and  rep- 
resentatives in  Congress,  together  with  a  copy  of  the 
constitution,  with  the  request  that  they  should  en- 
deavor to  obtain  the  consent  of  Congress  to  the  ad- 
mission of  West  Virginia  into  the  Union. 

The  New  State  Issue  in  Congress. 

On  May  29,  1862,  Senator  Waitman  T.  .Willey, 
who,  in  connection  with  Senator  John  S.  Carlile, 
represented  the  state  of  Virginia  under  the  restored 
government  in  the  United  States  Senate,  presented 
to  the  Senate  the  application  for  the  formation  of 
a  new  state,  the  act  of  the  legislature  giving  its  as- 
sent thereto,  a  copy  of  the  constitution  adopted  by 
that  portion  of  Virginia  which  proposed  to  erect  a 
new  state,  and  a  certified  copy  of  the  returns  of  the 
vote  showing  the  adoption  of  that  constitution,  and 
Mr.  Willey  accompanied  the  application  with  an 
address  in  which  he  recited  the  conditions  which 
prompted  the  movement. 

The  application  was  referred  to  the  Territorial 
Committee,  and  this  committee,  after  much  diffi- 
culty in  agreeing  upon  the  terms  of  a  bill,  reported  on 
June  23,  Senate  bill  number  365,  which  contained  the 
usual  specifications  and  some  unusual  conditions 
upon  which  the  consent  of  Congress  would  be 
granted  to  the  admission  of  the  proposed  new  state. 

The  chief  of  these  conditions  related  to  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
constitution  adopted  by  the  convention  which  framed 
it  was  silent  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  The  conven- 
tion had  voted  down  a  proposition  to  insert  a  clause 
for  gradual  emancipation,  or  submit  it  to  a  vote  of 
the  people,  although  an  informal  vote  was  taken  at 
the  same  time.  But  there  were  12,000  negro  slaves 
in  the  territory  out  of  which  the  new  state  was  to 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  381 

be  formed,  and  if  these  counties  were  admitted  as  a 
state  with  no  provision  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves,  it  would  continue  to  be  slave  territory. 
Therefore,  as  had  been  anticipated,  Congress  was 
not  disposed  to  admit  another  slave  state,  unless 
provision  was  made  for  making  it  a  free  state  in 
the  near  future. 

The  committee  reported  the  bill  with  a  condition 
requiring  gradual  emancipation.  Senator  Willey 
offered  an  amendment  relating  to  some  other  con- 
dition of  the  bill,  and  also  providing  for  reconven- 
ing the  convention  for  the  purpose  of  adopting  a 
provision  for  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves. 
Senator  Wade,  of  Ohio,  offered  an  amendment  that 
the  clause  of  the  new  constitution  relating  to  slavery 
should  provide  that  * '  all  slaves  within  the  said  state 
who  shall,  at  the  time  aforesaid,  be  under  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  shall  be  free  when  they  arrive  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one. ' ' 

The  Willey  amendment  as  thus  amended  was 
adopted,  and  this  settled  the  feature  of  the  bill  re- 
lating to  slavery  so  far  as  the  Senate  was  concerned, 
and  all  cause  of  opposition  from  the  majority  of  the 
Senate  having  been  met,  the  bill  was  put  upon  its 
passage  on  July  14,  1862,  and  adopted  by  the  Sen- 
ate by  a  vote  of  seventeen  for,  to  twenty-three 
against — Senator  Carlile  casting  one  of  the  votes 
against  it. 

The  Senate  bill  became  the  order  of  the  day  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  on  December  9  following. 
The  debate  on  the  bill  occupied  two  days,  and  trav- 
eled along  the  lines  that  had  been  traversed  by  the 
Senate,  except  that  the  conditions  regarding  slavery 
did  not  become  a  question.  But  the  constitutional 
questions  involved  were  discussed  with  great  ability 
on  both  sides. 

The  vote  of  the  House  on  tHe  passage  of  the  bill 


382         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

resulted  in  ninety-six  in  favor  and  fifty-five  votes 
against  it.  The  bill  was  approved  by  the  President, 
and  became  a  law  on  Dec.  31, 1862. 

But  it  must  be  noted  that  the  passage  of  the  bill 
by  Congress  did  not  yet  admit  West  Virginia  as  a 
state.  The  bill  made  it  conditional  that  the  clause 
which  Congress  had  prescribed  relating  to  slavery 
should  be  inserted  in  the  constitution  by  the  consti- 
tutional convention,  a  vote  be  taken  upon  its  adop- 
tion and  ratified  by  a  majority  of  the  voters,  and  that 
when  all  this  was  done  and  duly  certified  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  it  should  be  lawful 
for  the  President  to  issue  his  proclamation  stating 
the  fact,  and  thereupon  the  act  should  take  effect 
and  be  in  force  on  and  after  sixty  days  from  the 
date  of  said  proclamation. 

In  obedience  to  this  act  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion was  reconvened  on  Feb.  12,  1863.  The  "Willey 
Amendment"  relating  to  slavery  was,  after  much 
debate,  adopted  by  the  convention  almost  unani- 
mously. It  was  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people  on 
March  26, 1863,  and  adopted  by  a  majority  of  27,749 
— there  being  only  572  votes  cast  against  it. 

The  result  of  the  vote  was  certified  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  in  accordance  with  the 
act  of  Congress,  and  thus  the  last  step,  but  one,  to- 
ward the  consummation  of  the  long  contest  for  a 
new  state  had  been  successfully  taken. 

The  State  of  West  Virginia,  as  a  fixed  star  in  the 
galaxy  of  the  Union,  only  awaited  the  proclamation 
of  President  Lincoln. 

President  Lincoln  Starts  the  Machinery  of  the  New  State. 

The  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln  ushering 
in  the  new  state  was  at  this  stage,  of  course,  a  mere 
matter  of  form.  But  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  reached 
this  point  in  the  proceeding  easily  and  without  hesi- 


STEPS  TO  STATEHOOD.  383 

tation.  He  had  had  his  fight  between  the  patrons 
and  opponents  of  the  measure  when  the  bill  came  to 
him  from  Congress  for  his  signature.  The  pressure 
that  was  then  brought  to  bear  to  induce  him  to  veto 
the  bill,  perhaps  made  him  more  careful  in  its  con- 
sideration than  he  otherwise  would  have  been. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  all  Mr.  Lincoln's  inclinations 
were  toward  giving  the  executive  sanction  to  the 
new  state  movement.  He  had  promised  the  people 
early  in  their  struggle  that  they  should  have  his 
support  as  far  as  the  constitution  would  warrant. 
But  now  he  was  up  against  the  question  both  from 
a  legal  standpoint  and  as  a  measure  of  public  policy. 
He  took  his  constitutional  limit  for  determining  this. 
He  took  the  written  opinions  of  the  members  of  his 
cabinet.  It  was  during  Christmas  week  while  Con- 
gress was  taking  a  holiday  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
wrestling  with  the  new  state  bill.  The  friends  and 
patrons  of  the  bill  were  on  the  ground  anxiously 
awaiting  the  decision  of  the  President,  and  the  ear 
of  all  western  Virginia  was  turned  toward  Washing- 
ton to  hear  the  result.  On  New  Year's  Day,  1863, 
the  President  approved  the  bill. 

The  battle  had  now  been  fought  and  won.  Hence- 
forth the  territory  carved  out  of  the  mother  state  of 
Virginia  was  to  be  a  distinct  and  independent  state 
of  the  Union.  The  issue  had  passed  the  discussion 
of  the  two  houses  of  Congress,  the  cabinet  chamber, 
and  had  received  the  approval  of  the  Executive. 
Every  requirement  of  the  act  had  been  fulfilled  on 
the  part  of  the  people  of  western  Virginia.  The 
forces  of  opposition  had  been  withdrawn,  and  only 
the  formal  declaration  of  the  President  was  neces- 
sary, under  the  act,  to  usher  in  the  new  state. 

On  April  20,  1863,  President  Lincoln  issued  his 
proclamation  declaring  that  all  necessary  provisions 
of  the  act  of  Congress  creating  the  new  state  hav- 


384         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

ing  been  complied  with,  the  said  act  should  take 
effect  and  be  in  force  from  and  after  sixty  days  from 
the  date  of  said  proclamation. 

Thus,  on  June  20, 1863,  the  State  of  West  Virginia 
became  a  legal  entity.  It  needed  only  to  be  orga- 
nized and  have  its  governmental  machinery  set  in 
motion.  And  it  was  not  long  about  it. 

Hon.  A.  T.  Boreman  was  elected  its  first  governor. 
Governor  Pierpoint  and  his  staff  quietly  folded  their 
tents  and  transferred  the  government  of  Virginia, 
which  they  supposed  was  in  their  keeping,  to  Alex- 
andria. There  he  continued  to  administer  the  gov- 
ernment of  Virginia  in  the  interest  of  the  Federal 
authority,  while  Governor  Letcher,  at  Richmond, 
continued  to  administer  it  in  the  interest  of  the  Con- 
federate authority.  The  legislature  of  the  new  state 
met  in  Wheeling  on  the  day  when,  by  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  President,  the  new  state  was  born,  and 
proceeded  to  organize  the  government.  It  elected 
two  senators  to  represent  the  new  state  in  the 
United  States  Senate.  Hon.  W.  T.  Willey  and  Hon. 
P.  G.  Van  Winkle  were  chosen  to  these  positions. 
They  repaired  to  Washington  with  their  creden- 
tials, and  although  their  appearance  at  the  bar  of 
the  Senate  was  the  occasion  for  formal  objection  to 
their  admission  by  those  who  had  opposed  the  new 
state  project,  and  now  held  it  had  no  legal  existence, 
this  was  only  a  form  of  graceful  submission  to  the 
inevitable.  They  were  duly  admitted,  and  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States,  followed  by  the  House  in 
admitting  delegates,  thus  gave  the  formal,  full  and 
final  recognition  of  the  Congress  to  the  State  of 
West  Virginia. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Fast  and  Maxwell:  Formation  of  West  Virginia; 
W.  P.  Willey:  An  Inside  View  of  the  Formation  of  West  Virginia. 

WILLIAM  P.  WILLEY, 

Professor  of  Equity,  Jurisprudence,  and  Commercial  Law, 
West  Virginia  University. 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  385 

CHAPTER  III. 
WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909. 

West  Virginia's  Part  in  The  War  of  Secession. 

In  the  war  for  Southern  independence,  to  which 
West  Virginia  owes  her  existence  as  a  state,  the  West 
Virginians,  in  proportion  to  their  number  and  wealth, 
did  as  much  as  the  people  of  any  other  state.  That 
they  were  not  friendly  to  secession  was  shown  by 
their  vote  of  ten  to  one  against  the  Virginia  ordi- 
nance of  secession.  That  the  determined  character 
of  this  opposition  to  the  action  of  Virginia  was  un- 
derestimated by  the  authorities  at  Eichmond  was 
shown  by  the  persistent  efforts  of  Virginia  to  secure 
control  of  her  western  counties  and  to  collect  forces 
therein  for  the  Confederacy.  Not  until  the  failure 
of  the  Imboden  raid  was  the  true  sentiment  of  West 
Virginia  understood  by  the  Confederates.  To  the 
Union  army  she  furnished  over  30,000  regular 
troops,  exclusive  of  the  2,300  Home  Guards,  consist- 
ing of  thirty- two  companies  organized  to  defend 
thirty-two  home  counties  from  invasion.  For  the 
Confederate  service  she  furnished  between  7,000  and 
10,000,  nearly  all  of  whom  enlisted  before  the  close 
of  1861.  The  importance  of  West  Virginia's  con- 
tribution to  the  war  cannot  be  estimated  alone  by 
the  number  of  men  which  she  furnished.  The  fail- 
ure of  the  Confederates  to  hold  the  territory  and  to 
secure  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Eailway  gave  the 
Union  forces  a  great  advantage  in  the  transporta- 
tion of  troops  between  Ohio  and  the  East. 

Politics  and  Political  Issues. 

West  Virginia  entered  upon  her  career  as  a  sepa- 
rate state  of  the  American  Union  at  the  most  crit- 


386         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

ical  period  in  the  War  of  Secession — two  weeks 
before  the  battles  of  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  in 
1863.  After  the  President's  proclamation  of  April 
20,  the  new  government  was  rapidly  organized.  Ar- 
thur I.  Boreman  for  governor,  and  other  state  offi- 
cers, nominated  at  a  convention  at  Parkersburg 
early  in  May,  were  elected  the  latter  part  of  the 
same  month.  Judges  of  the  supreme  court  and 
county  officials  were  elected  at  the  same  time.  On 
June  20  the  state  officers  began  their  duties.  On  the 
same  day  the  first  legislature  (twenty  senators  and 
fifty-one  delegates)  assembled,  and  on  August  4  it 
elected  two  United  States  senators — Waitman  T. 
Willey  and  Peter  G.  Van  Winkle.  Soon  thereafter 
congressmen  were  elected  from  each  of  the  three 
newly  formed  congressional  districts. 

The  new  state  government,  laying  the  foundation 
stones  of  state  institutions  and  of  future  order  and 
development,  was  confronted  by  many  serious  diffi- 
culties and  obstacles — economic,  social  and  political. 
The  people,  separated  into  many  detached  local 
groups  by  precipitous  mountains  and  rugged 
streams,  had  not  developed  unity  of  action  nor  social 
and  commercial  identity,  except,  perhaps,  in  the 
counties  along  the  Ohio,  and  along  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Kailroad.  The  most  serious  immediate  politi- 
cal difficulty  was  the  sympathy  for  the  Confederacy 
exhibited  in  various  parts  of  the  state.  Although 
the  Confederates  had  soon  lost  control  of  the  larger 
part  of  the  state,  over  7,000  West  Virginians  had  en- 
tered the  Confederate  army  early  in  the  war — about 
one-fourth  of  the  number  who  enlisted  in  the  Union 
army — and  the  Confederate  raids  and  skirmishes 
into  the  state,  at  first  to  prevent  separation  from 
Virginia,  were  continued  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

Counties  along  the  southern  border  of  the  new 
state  were  partially  under  the  control  of  the  Con- 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  387 

federates  until  near  the  close  of  the  war,  and  "were 
forced  to  pay  heavy  taxes  to  the  Richmond  govern- 
ment, and  to  furnish  soldiers  for  the  Confederate 
army."  Other  counties  along  the  border  suffered 
from  irregular  "bands  of  guerrillas  and  marauders" 
whom  the  state  troops  were  unable  to  manage.  In 
the  sad  state  of  disorder,  the  governor  recommended 
that  the  citizens  should  organize  to  capture  and  kill 
the  "outlaws"  wherever  and  whenever  found,  and 
appealed  to  the  Washington  government,  which  or- 
ganized the  state  into  a  military  district  under  com- 
mand of  General  Kelley,  who  scattered  many  irregu- 
lar bands  and  gradually  rendered  life  and  property 
secure;  but  in  some  portions  of  the  state  the  civil 
authorities  were  helpless  against  lawlessness  long 
after  the  close  of  the  war. 

Under  these  conditions  the  administration  was 
seriously  embarrassed  by  lack  of  funds  to  meet  ordi- 
nary expenditures.  In  1864  the  governor  reported 
that  one-half  of  the  counties  had  paid  no  taxes  and 
others  were  in  arrears.  In  fourteen  counties  there 
were  no  sheriffs  or  other  collectors  of  taxes,  "be- 
cause of  the  danger  incident  thereto. ' '  The  burdens 
of  the  counties  which  paid  were  necessarily  in- 
creased. One  of  the  earliest  measures  of  the  state 
government  was  an  act  (1863)  providing  for  the 
forfeiture  of  property  belonging  to  the  enemies  of 
the  state,  including  those  who  had  joined  the  Con- 
federate army ;  but  such  property  was  seized  only  in 
a  few  instances  and  the  law  remained  practically  a 
dead  letter — because  the  citizens  of  the  state  were 
usually  unwilling  to  take  advantage  of  the  political 
disabilities  of  their  neighbors. 

Though  in  the  election  of  1864  there  were  only  a 
few  scattering  votes  in  opposition  to  the  officers  of 
the  state  administration,  there  were  no  means  of  ob- 
taining an  expression  of  the  people  in  some  of  the 


388         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

extreme  southern  counties  where  the  governor  re- 
ported that,  owing  to  the  Confederate  incursions  and 
local  conditions,  it  was  still  impracticable  to  organ- 
ize civil  authority. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  there  were  still  many 
sources  of  disorder  and  friction.  The  most  promi- 
nent related  to  the  political  status  of  those  who  had 
joined  or  aided  the  Confederate  cause.  The  first 
general  election  laws  of  West  Virginia,  passed  in 
1863,  had  provided  for  election  supervisors  and  in- 
spectors who  were  authorized  to  require  from  all 
whose  eligibility  to  vote  was  in  doubt  an  oath  to 
support  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  and  of 
"West  Virginia.  Naturally  the  Unionists  considered 
that  those  who  had  supported  the  Confederate  cause 
could  not  safely  be  entrusted  with  political  power 
immediately  after  their  return  from  the  Confeder- 
ate armies,  and  before  they  had  proven  their  willing- 
ness to  cooperate  in  maintaining  the  established 
order.  This  opinion  was  enforced  by  conditions  and 
events.  In  1865  organized  bands  of  returning  Con- 
federates committed  several  murders  and  robberies 
in  Upshur,  Barbour,  Marion  and  Harrison  counties. 
The  legislature,  with  partisan  spirit  increased, 
passed  the  voter's  test  act,  requiring  from  all  voters 
an  oath  that  they  had  neither  voluntarily  borne 
arms  against  the  United  States,  nor  aided  those  who 
had  engaged  in  armed  hostility  against  the  United 
States.  It  also  proposed  an  amendment  disfranchis- 
ing those  who  had  given  voluntary  aid  to  the  Con- 
federates— of  course  with  the  intention  of  removing 
the  disabilities  in  course  of  time.  This  further 
aroused  the  spirit  of  antagonism  and  insubordina- 
tion in  the  minds  of  the  ex-Confederates  who  were 
"impatient  to  repossess  themselves  of  place  and 
power." 

In  the  elections  of  1865  the  test  oath  act  was  not 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  389 

strictly  enforced,  and  in  a  few  places  it  was  entirely 
ignored.  Many  ex-Confederates,  claiming  that  the 
law  was  unconstitutional,  took  a  free  hand  in  organ- 
izing the  local  government.  In  some  places  they 
ran  for  office,  and  in  Greenbrier  county  two  were 
elected — one  to  the  state  senate  and  the  other  to  the 
house  of  delegates.  In  his  message  of  1866  Governor 
Boreman,  commenting  upon  the  alacrity  with  which 
the  ex- Confederates  insisted  upon  participation  in 
politics,  advised  the  legislature  to  enact  a  more  effi- 
cient registration  law,  to  require  election  officers  to 
take  a  test  oath,  and  to  give  the  necessary  concur- 
rence in  the  proposed  disfranchisement  amendment 
so  that  it  could  be  submitted  to  the  people.  The 
legislature  promptly  passed  a  registration  law,  au- 
thorizing the  governor  to  appoint  in  each  county  a 
registration  board  consisting  of  three  citizens  who 
were  given  power  to  designate  the  township  regis- 
trars. It  also  concurred  in  the  proposed  amendment 
which  was  promptly  ratified  by  the  people  on  May 
24,  1866,  by  about  7,000  votes,  thereby  disfranchis- 
ing between  10,000  and  20,000  persons. 

Although  there  is  yet  considerable  difference  of 
opinion  in  regard  to  the  wisdom  of  these  measures, 
it  is  generally  agreed  that  they  were  the  natural 
result  of  conditions  which  seemed  to  threaten  not 
only  the  policies  of  the  administration  but  also  the 
integrity  and  independence  of  the  new  state.  Many 
of  those  who  were  disfranchised  hoped  to  see  West 
Virginia  return  to  the  control  of  Virginia.  In  Jef- 
ferson county  a  large  number  of  persons,  stating 
that  the  transfer  of  the  county  from  Virginia  to 
West  Virginia  during  their  absence  was  irregular 
and  void,  refused  to  acknowledge  that  they  were 
West  Virginians,  and  attempted  to  hold  an  election 
as  a  part  of  the  state  of  Virginia;  but  they  yielded 
when  General  Emory  was  sent  to  aid  the  civil  offi- 


390         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

cers  in  maintaining  the  law.  Virginia,  too,  tried  in 
vain  to  secure  the  return  of  Jefferson  and  Berkeley 
counties,  first  by  annulling  the  act  of  the  Pierpont 
government  which  had  consented  to  the  transfer, 
and  second  (1866)  by  bringing  a  suit  in  the  supreme 
court  which,  in  1871,  was  decided  in  favor  of  West 
Virginia.  In  1866,  while  Pierpont  was  still  gov- 
ernor of  Virginia,  the  legislature  of  that  state  ap- 
pointed three  commissioners  to  make  overtures  to 
West  Virginia  for  the  reunion  of  the  two  states,  but 
the  legislature  of  West  Virginia  rejected  the  propo- 
sition in  1867,  stating  that  the  people  of  the  new 
state  were  unalterably  opposed  to  reunion.  At  the 
same  time  the  condition  in  some  of  the  southern 
border  counties  caused  the  legislature  to  enact  a 
more  exacting  registration  law,  requiring  an  appli- 
cant for  registration  not  only  to  take  the  test  oath 
but  also  to  prove  that  he  was  qualified  to  vote.  A 
state  of  insubordination  existed  in  three  or  four 
counties.  In  some  places  no  elections  had  been  held 
in  the  fall  of  1866  because  of  the  fear  of  violence. 
The  judge  of  the  ninth  district,  including  Green- 
brier  and  Monroe  counties,  had  received  anonymous 
letters  threatening  his  life.  In  his  message  the 
governor  stated  that  the  ex-Confederates  who  caused 
these  troubles  were  "learned  men." 

The  new  registration  law,  which  gave  to  regis- 
trars the  power  to  identify  those  who  had  aided  the 
secessionists  in  any  form,  increased  the  antagonism 
to  the  administration,  and  the  opposition  to  the 
laws.  During  the  campaign  of  1868  there  was  much 
partisan  excitement  and  friction.  Many,  unable  to 
take  the  ironclad  oaths  which  would  enable  them  to 
vote,  and  perhaps  further  irritated  by  the  adoption 
of  the  Fourteenth  amendment,  frequently  attempted 
to  intimidate  public  officials,  and  threatened  violence 
which  in  some  places  prevented  elections  and  in 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  391 

others  compelled  the  governor  to  appeal  for  Federal 
troops  to  aid  in  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order. 
Force  was  necessary  to  aid  in  the  execution  of  the 
law  in  the  counties  of  Monroe,  Wayne,  Cabell,  Logan, 
Randolph,  Tucker,  Barbour  and  Marion.  In  some 
counties  the  restrictions  of  the  registration  law  were 
almost  entirely  disregarded.  As  might  have  been 
expected,  in  some  instances  disorders  arose  from 
arbitrary  refusal  to  register  persons  against  whom 
there  was  no  tangible  evidence,  or  from  unnecessary 
and  unwise  rigidity  in  administering  the  law — 
which  of  itself  was  not  necessarily  unjust  nor  unwise. 
Before  the  election  of  1869  there  was  a  vigorous 
discussion  of  the  suffrage  question  in  all  its  phases. 
A  large  number  of  the  liberal  Republicans  consid- 
ered that  a  continuance  of  the  test  oaths  was  inex- 
pedient and  desired  to  adopt  some  policy  that  would 
terminate  the  bitter  animosities  of  years.  The 
legislature  of  1870  repealed  some  of  the  test  oaths. 
Gov.  William  E.  Stevenson,  who  had  defeated  J.  N. 
Camden,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  by 
a  majority  of  only  5,000,  with  vigorous  progressive 
views  continued  the  constructive  policy  of  his  prede- 
cessor, endeavoring  to  remove  the  deeply  rooted 
prejudices  against  immigration,  and  earnestly  fa- 
voring liberal  legislation  to  encourage  projects  of 
internal  improvement  and  industrial  enterprise 
which  would  engage  the  people  of  the  state  in  the 
development  of  its  resources  and  terminate  the 
quarrels  over  past  issues.  He  also  recommended  an 
amendment  to  the  constitution  to  restore  the  privi- 
leges of  those  who  had  been  disfranchised  by  the 
amendment  of  1866.  W.  H.  H.  Flick  in  the  House 
proposed  the  amendment  which,  after  acceptance  by 
the  legislature  of  1870  and  1871,  was  ratified  by  a 
vote  of  the  people  by  a  majority  of  17,223,  and  pro- 
claimed by  the  governor  in  April,  1871. 


392         THE  HISTORY  OE  .WEST  VIRGINIA. 

In  the  meantime,  in  the  election  of  1870,  the  oppo- 
sition had  pushed  their  claims  to  registration — 
often  by  intimidation  of  the  registrars.  In  some 
counties  the  law  was  so  far  disregarded  that  every 
male  of  the  required  age  was  registered.  This  lax- 
ity in  the  enforcement  of  the  more  stringent  features 
of  the  registration  law,  together  with  the  opposition 
to  negro  suffrage,  resulted  in  a  victory  for  the  Demo- 
crats, who  elected  John  J.  Jacobs  governor  by  a 
majority  of  over  2,000  votes  and  secured  a  working 
majority  in  both  houses  which  they  retained  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  Although  Jacobs'  usefulness 
was  somewhat  restricted  by  limited  views  of  states- 
manship, he  was  conservative  and  moderate  in  his 
policies. 

The  strong  reactionary  elements  which  composed 
the  Democratic  party  demanded  a  constitutional  con- 
vention, and  their  strength  was  shown  in  the  legisla- 
ture of  February,  1871,  and  in  the  election  of  August, 

1871,  which  determined  the  question.    In  the  election 
of  the  following  October  they  elected  sixty-six  of  the 
seventy-eight    members    of    the    convention.      The 
twelve  Republicans  they  humorously  called  "the 
twelve  apostles." 

The  convention  met  at  Charleston  on  Jan.  16, 

1872,  and  remained  in  session  for  eighty-four  days, 
completing  its  work  on  April  9,  1872.    The  new  con- 
stitution, ratified  by  the  people  by  a  majority  of 
4,567  votes,  exhibited  the  marks  of  the  period  of  par- 
tisanship which  preceded  it. 

Strong  efforts  were  made  by  the  most  radical  reac- 
tionaries to  keep  West  Virginia  under  the  influence 
of  the  life  and  institutions  of  Virginia  and  the  South. 
After  the  early  sessions  of  the  convention,  these  ef- 
forts were  somewhat  neutralized  by  the  more  liberal 
or  modern  Democrats  who  feared  that  the  ex-Con- 
federate element  of  the  party  might  force  into  the 


.WEST  VIEGINIA,  1863-1909.  393 

constitution  provisions  which  would  defeat  it  before 
the  people. 

Although  the  new  constitution  made  some  wise 
changes — lengthening  the  term  of  state  executive 
officers  to  four  years,  doubling  the  terms  of  members 
of  each  house  of  the  legislature,  and  providing  for 
biennial  (instead  of  annual)  legislatures — it  con- 
tained several  restrictions  and  inhibitions  and  vari- 
ous antiquated  and  imperfect  provisions  which  have 
retarded  or  prevented  the  governmental  adjust- 
ments necessary  to  meet  modern  West  Virginia  con- 
ditions. Abolishing  the  township  system,  it  pro- 
vided for  the  return  to  the  old  county  system — the 
Virginia  idea  of  government  by  justices  of  the 
peace — which  was  subsequently  changed  by  amend- 
ment (1881).  Although  other  clauses  were  changed 
by  amendments  in  1884  and  1902,  still  other  changes 
are  needed.  For  instance,  in  spite  of  the  great 
need  of  a  secret  Australian  ballot  to  prevent  traffic 
in  votes,  the  antiquated  clause  still  provides  that 
"the  voter  shall  be  left  free  to  vote  by  either  open, 
sealed  or  secret  ballot  as  he  may  elect."  In  1903 
Governor  White,  suggesting  the  need  of  a  constitu- 
tional convention,  said:  "Our  constitution  creaks  at 
almost  every  joint." 

The  political  and  constitutional  history  after  1872 
may  be  briefly  summarized.  In  the  election  that  fol- 
lowed the  adoption  of  the  new  constitution  the  Demo- 
crats were  divided.  Camden,  who  was  their  regular 
nominee,  was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  12,363  by 
Governor  Jacobs,  the  independent  candidate,  who, 
after  his  reelection,  devoted  much  attention  to  meas- 
ures relating  to  the  material  development  of  the 
state. 

In  the  exciting  election  of  1876  the  Democratic 
state  ticket  of  eight  persons,  seven  of  whom  had 
been  in  the  Confederate  army,  was  elected  by  a  ma- 


394         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

jority  of  from  12,000  to  16,000.  H.  M.  Mathews,  who 
defeated  Gen.  Nathan  Goff,  the  popular  Bepublican 
candidate  for  governor,  was  a  patriotic,  broad  and 
liberal-minded  Confederate  who  had  fully  accepted 
the  results  of  the  war  and  was  well  fitted  to  lead  in 
meeting  living  issues.  His  administration  has  been 
characterized  as  an  era  of  good-feeling  in  which  the 
state  began  to  show  new  signs  of  awakening  life — 
especially  in  industrial  development. 

Gov.  J.  B.  Jackson,  who  succeeded  Governor 
Mathews  in  1881,  was  an  honest  but  partisan  Demo- 
crat of  the  old  school  who,  in  the  election  of  1880, 
received  a  plurality  of  16,139  over  George  C.  Stur- 
giss,  the  Republican  candidate.  Jackson  favored  the 
enactment  of  laws  that  would  encourage  immigra- 
tion, manufactures  and  the  development  of  the  mate- 
rial resources  of  the  state.  He  also  attempted  to 
secure  reforms  in  taxation  and  state  finance  by  di- 
recting that  all  property  not  exempted  by  the  consti- 
tution should  be  listed  for  taxation,  and  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  tax  commission  (1883).  During  his 
administration,  a  period  of  continued  general  pros- 
perity and  happiness  (excepting  the  calamitous 
results  of  the  great  floods  of  February,  1884),  steps 
were  also  taken  to  revise  the  laws,  some  of  which 
were  indefinite  and  inconsistent. 

Under  Gov.  E.  Willis  Wilson,  who  was  elected  in 
1884  by  a  majority  of  5,289,  there  was  a  continua- 
tion of  the  agitation  for  the  revision  of  the  tax  laws 
in  order  to  secure  equality  of  taxation,  and  the  gov- 
ernor also  proposed  legislation  to  reform  the  election 
laws,  to  prohibit  oppressive  trusts  and  combinations, 
and  to  prevent  the  distribution  of  railway  passes  to 
officers  of  the  state  and  delegates  to  political  conven- 
tions. The  administration  waged  a  fierce  and  re- 
lentless war  against  the  trunk  line  railroads  which; 
the  governor  said,  had  discriminated  against 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  395 

people  of  West  Virginia  in  freight  and  passenger 
rates.  To  secure  regulation  of  railway  rates  the 
governor  called  a  special  session  of  the  legislature, 
which,  after  heated  debates  and  a  close  vote  of  nine- 
teen to  nineteen  in  the  House  (twenty-seven  absent 
and  not  voting),  dropped  the  further  consideration 
of  the  subject  and  decided  to  await  the  result  of  the 
operation  of  the  new  national  interstate-commerce 
law,  which  had  just  passed  Congress  and  was  ap- 
proved by  a  joint  resolution  of  both  houses  of  the 
legislature,  and  which  soon  proved  beneficial  to  "West 
Virginia  shippers. 

Gov.  A.  B.  Fleming,  who  contested  the  certified 
returns  which  gave  his  opponent  (Gen.  Nathan 
Goff)  a  majority  of  110  votes,  and  received  his  office 
only  by  a  strictly  party  vote  (forty- three  Democrats 
to  forty  Republicans)  of  the  two  houses  of  the  legis- 
lature, continued  the  policy  of  his  predecessor,  who, 
as  a  result  of  the  contest,  had  continued  to  act  as 
executive  for  nearly  a  year  beyond  the  term  for 
which  he  was  elected.  He  urged  the  taxation  of  the 
property  of  the  Pullman  Company  and  other  foreign 
car  companies,  and  the  business  of  foreign  telegraph 
companies  originating  in  the  state.  He  also  recom- 
mended a  general  policy  of  legislation  to  preserve 
the  resources  of  the  state  from  monopoly,  to  foster 
agricultural  interests  and  to  diversify  the  various 
industries  of  the  state. 

Gov.  Wm.  A.  MacCorkle,  who  defeated  Thos.  E. 
Davis,  the  Republican  candidate,  by  a  majority  of 
less  than  4,000  in  the  election  of  1892,  was  a  liberal, 
progressive  young  man  who  urged  legislation  for 
the  adjustment  of  state  taxation,  liberal  appropria- 
tions to  support  the  growing  institutions  of  the  state, 
and  proper  regulative  machinery  to  meet  the  chang- 
ing conditions.  He  cordially  cooperated  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Republican  legislature  in  favor  of  re- 


396         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

organizing  the  old  partisan  boards  of  state  institu- 
tions and  securing  needed  reforms  "to  give  to  the 
institutions  the  greatest  degree  of  efficiency,  free 
from  the  influence  of  politics." 

The  Democratic  majority,  which  had  reached  its 
highest  point  in  1880,  had  steadily  declined  after 
that  date  until  it  became  the  minority  at  the  close  of 
MacCorkle's  administration.  In  the  election  of  1896 
the  entire  Eepublican  state  ticket  was  elected. 
George  W.  Atkinson  defeated  Cornelius  C.  Watts 
for  governor  by  a  plurality  of  12,070  votes.  The 
legislature  had  already  elected  one  Eepublican  sen- 
ator (S.  B.  Elkins)  in  1895,  and  in  1899  it  proceeded 
to  elect  another  (N.  B.  Scott).  Governor  Atkinson 
advocated  policies  for  the  improvement  of  the  public 
schools,  the  improvement  of  roads  by  some  system 
of  permanent  road  building,  the  improvement  of  con- 
ditions of  labor  by  state  regulations,  a  radical 
amendment  of  the  election  laws,  the  encouragement 
of  immigration,  and  other  measures  to  meet  the  new 
and  phenomenal  industrial  expansion  in  the  state 
which  continued  to  influence  political  problems  and 
policies  in  subsequent  administrations. 

In  the  election  of  1900  Albert  B.  White,  Eepubli- 
can, defeated  John  Homer  Holt  for  governor  by  a 
plurality  of  19,516.  In  1904  Wm.  M.  0.  Dawson, 
Republican,  defeated  J.  J.  Cornwall  by  a  plurality 
of  9,083.  At  the  same  time  the  Eepublican  plurality 
for  President  was  nearly  32,000,  and  for  state 
officers  was  nearly  25,000.  Under  both  White  and 
Dawson  the  extension  of  state  regulation  and  the 
reform  of  the  tax  laws  furnished  the  largest  ques- 
tions in  politics. 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century,  although  the  constitu- 
tion provided  that  taxation  should  be  equal  and  uni- 
form throughout  the  state,  there  has  been  much  com- 
plaint of  the  inequalities  and  injustice  of  the  tax 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  397 

laws.  A  tax  commission  created  by  the  legislature 
of  1883  had  scathingly  criticised  and  condemned  the 
laws,  but  without  practical  results.  Though  in  1885 
the  legislature,  which  had  never  before  exercised  its 
power  under  the  constitution  of  1872  to  tax  privi- 
leges and  franchises,  finally  enacted  a  law  taxing 
corporations,  little  was  realized  from  it.  Though  in 
1887  it  provided  for  an  inheritance  tax  (of  2y2  per 
cent.),  a  defect  in  the  law  rendered  it  of  little  value. 
The  first  substantial  reform  in  the  old  laws  was 
made  by  the  legislature  of  1901,  which  largely  in- 
creased the  revenue  from  license  taxes  in  charters  of 
corporations  (regulating  the  rate  according  to  the 
amount  of  authorized  capital),  and  creating  a  tax 
commission  to  submit  plans  for  further  reforms.  In 
1904  the  legislature,  at  a  special  session,  created  the 
office  of  state  tax  commissioner  and  enacted  a  sys- 
tem of  twenty-one  tax  laws,  which  greatly  lessened 
inequalities  and  practically  provided  for  the  extin- 
guishment of  direct  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  state 
government  after  1906.  Though  these  reforms  have 
been  strongly  opposed,  it  is  generally  recognized 
that  with  some  modifications  the  reform  policy  will 
be  sustained  and  continued. 

The  Republicans  have  steadily  increased  in  num- 
ber and  influence  with  the  great  industrial  develop- 
ment of  the  state,  which  has  been  accompanied  by  a 
rather  large  and  continuous  immigration  from  the 
north  and  northwest,  the  fading  of  old  traditions 
and  the  rise  of  new  issues.  In  the  face  of  their 
increasing  strength,  however,  they  endangered  their 
prospect  of  success  at  the  polls  in  1908  by  party  dis- 
sensions, which  resulted  in  two  opposing  state  or- 
ganizations of  the  party  and  two  gubernatorial  tick- 
ets. On  the  other  hand,  it  was  stated  that  the  Demo- 
cratic state  convention  on  July  30,  1908,  weakened 
the  chances  of  the  Democratic  state  ticket  by  com- 


398         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

mitting  the  party  (by  a  vote  of  712  against  411)  to 
negro  disfranchisement  and  "Jim  Crow"  cars. 

Within  a  month  of  the  election,  the  Bepublicans, 
by  agreeing  to  the  withdrawal  of  rival  gubernatorial 
candidates  and  the  selection  of  a  new  head  for  their 
ticket,  succeeded  in  electing  their  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor, W.  E.  Glasscock,  and  their  entire  state  ticket. 

Industrial  Progress. 

The  vast  resources  of  West  Virginia,  whose  de- 
velopment was  so  long  delayed  and  retarded  by  lack 
of  transportation,  have  recently  furnished  the  in- 
centive for  many  new  enterprises  which  have  greatly 
changed  the  life  of  the  state.  The  recent  industrial 
development  of  West  Virginia  had  its  origin  largely 
in  the  increasing  demand  for  timber,  coal,  oil  and 
gas,  and  to  the  resulting  inducements  for  the  con- 
struction of  railroads  and  the  establishment  of  cer- 
tain manufactures  such  as  glass,  iron  and  steel,  for 
which  the  state  furnishes  a  clean,  cheap  fuel. 

The  development  of  agriculture,  as  a  skilled  busi- 
ness in  West  Virginia,  was  greatly  retarded  by  the 
habits  of  the  people  resulting  from  frontier  condi- 
tions and  long-continued  lack  of  transportation  fa- 
cilities. There  had  been  little  concentrated  or  co- 
operative action  for  improvement  of  agriculture  be- 
fore the  war.  Except  in  a  few  counties  the  people 
were  satisfied  with  production  for  bare  subsistence, 
and  gave  little  attention  to  production  for  exporta- 
tion. There  were  few  dealers  in  farm  implements 
even  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  the  steam  thresher 
did  not  come  into  use  until  about  1880,  after  which 
there  was  a  rapid  introduction  of  all  kinds  of  im- 
proved implements  and  machinery.  Since  1891 
considerable  advance  has  been  made  through  the 
influence  of  farmers'  institutes,  better  communica- 
tions and  various  associations. 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  399 

Lumbering  (the  lineal  descendant  of  the  earlier 
cutting  and  rafting  of  tanbark,  hoop-poles  and  logs), 
although  it  had  developed  little  before  1865,  ranked 
second  among  the  industries  of  the  state  in  1900,  and 
first  in  1905. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  an  awakened  interest  in 
the  latent  mineral  resources  of  the  state  indicated 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era  of  development.  Coal 
mining  companies  were  formed  and  coal  mining 
operations  were  begun  in  Putnam,  Boone,  Wayne, 
Mason  and  Monongalia  counties  by  1869,  and  in 
Sewall  mountain  on  New  Eiver  in  1873.  Operations 
were  extensive  in  four  other  counties  (Marion, 
Fayette,  Harrison  and  Ohio)  by  1880,  and  at  the 
same  time  embryo  operations  were  begun  in  the  coke 
industry  which  steadily  increased  after  1880,  and 
especially  after  1890,  when  machines  were  intro- 
duced for  mining.  In  1903  there  were  530  mines  in- 
spected, and  the  total  production  was  24,000,000  long 
tons,  of  which  nearly  19,500,000  tons  were  shipped  to 
market. 

Petroleum,  first  obtained  in  large  quantities  in 
1860  on  the  Little  Kanawha  near  Parkersburg,  de- 
veloped a  thriving  business,  which,  although  ruined 
by  the  Confederates  in  1863,  was  revived  in  1865 
and  greatly  extended  by  operations  in  Wirt,  Wood 
and  Pleasants  counties.  From  1876  to  1889  there 
was  little  extension  of  productive  area.  The  yearly 
production  steadily  declined  during  this  period,  but 
it  rapidly  increased  from  544,000  barrels  in  1889,  to 
16,000,000  barrels  in  1900,  surpassing  both  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York.  By  means  of  a  series  of  pump- 
ing stations  this  product  is  forced  through  pipe  lines 
over  the  mountains  to  the  seaboard  cities. 

After  1882,  by  the  opening  of  new  gas  wells  and 
the  discovery  of  new  gas  fields,  the  practical  use  of 
gas  became  a  large  factor  in  the  industrial  and  so- 


400         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

cial  development  of  the  state,  furnishing  the  induce- 
ment for  the  location  of  many  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments seeking  cheap  fuel  and  attracting  immi- 
grants desiring  a  clean  and  convenient  fuel  for  their 
homes. 

Industrial  progress  has  been  greatly  influenced  by 
corresponding  development  of  means  of  transporta- 
tion. The  state  began  its  existence  with  few  facili- 
ties for  communication  in  the  larger  portion  of  the 
state.  Of  the  few  turnpikes  the  most  important 
were  the  Staunton  and  Parkersburg,  and  the  Win- 
chester and  Parkersburg  ("Northwestern").  South 
of  the  Great  Kanawha,  roads  of  any  kind  were  few 
and  in  very  bad  condition.  Steamboat  navigation 
within  the  state  was  confined  to  a  very  few  streams. 
There  was  but  one  railroad,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio, 
whose  influence  affected  only  a  narrow  strip  across 
the  northern  part  of  the  state.  The  new  government 
promptly  took  steps  to  secure  the  improvement  of 
the  Great  Kanawha  and  the  Little  Kanawha,  and 
encouraged  the  construction  of  railroads.  Of  the 
many  proposed  railways  chartered  after  1864,  sev- 
eral were  completed  by  1885.  In  1871  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  railroad  purchased  the  old  Hempfield  rail- 
road, in  operation  between  Wheeling  and  Washing- 
ton, Pennsylvania,  and  completed  it  to  Pittsburg. 
In  January,  1873,  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  was 
completed  westward  from  Sulphur  Springs  to  Hunt- 
ington.  In  the  same  year  Congress  made  small  ap- 
propriations for  sluice  and  wing  dam  improvement 
on  the  Great  Kanawha,  and  two  years  later  began 
appropriations  for  permanent  lock  and  dam  im- 
provements which,  after  a  quarter  of  a  century,  were 
completed  to  Montgomery  above  Charleston  at  a 
cost  of  over  $4,000,000.  In  1887  beacon  lights  were 
established  on  the  Ohio,  and  soon  thereafter  on  the 
Great  Kanawha.  By  that  time  Congress  had  begun 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  401 

the  appropriations  by  which  slack  water  improve- 
ments have  been  extended  up  the  Monongahela  to 
Fairmont.  In  the  meantime  new  railway  lines 
had  been  in  progress  of  construction.  In  1884  the 
Kanawha  and  Michigan  (continuation  of  the  Ohio 
Central)  was  opened  from  the  Ohio  Eiver  to  Charles- 
ton. In  1885  a  line,  designed  to  connect  the  north- 
central  part  of  the  state  with  Pittsburg,  was  com- 
pleted from  Fairmont  to  Morgantown,  from  whence 
it  was  later  extended  to  Connellsville,  Pennsylvania, 
where  it  connected  with  a  main  line  of  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  from  Cumberland  to  Pittsburg.  The  Ohio 
Biver  railway  was  completed  from  Wheeling  to 
Parkersburg  in  1885,  to  Point  Pleasant  in  1886,  and 
to  Huntington  in  1888.  Other  lines  were  soon  begun. 
In  1892  the  Norfolk  and  Western  was  opened  to  the 
Ohio,  and  in  1893  the  Charleston,  Clendennin  and 
Sutton  was  put  in  operation  up  the  Elk  Eiver  from 
Charleston  to  Sutton,  from  which  a  line  has  since 
been  extended  to  Elkins.  From  1896  to  1902,  the 
most  active  period  of  railway  construction  in  the 
state,  sixteen  roads  or  branches  were  built;  and  in 
1904,  railroads  penetrated  fifty-one  of  the  fifty-five 
counties. 

The  rapid  development  of  productive  industries 
and  of  transportation  facilities  has  been  accom- 
panied by  great  changes  in  every  phase  of  life,  in- 
dustrial, social,  political  and  educational.  It  has 
caused  a  phenomenal  growth  of  many  towns,  and 
great  improvement  in  the  conditions  of  life. 

Population  and  Material  Wealth. 

The  character  of  the  population  has  greatly 
changed  since  the  War  of  Secession.  The  original 
settlers,  whose  ancestors  were  generally  English 
or  Scotch-Irish,  or  perhaps  Pennsylvania  German, 
were  contented  with  a  life  of  rural  simplicity 

Vol.  1—26. 


402         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

and  hospitality  whose  economy  was  usually  mere 
subsistence.  Their  descendants  usually  lived  ami- 
ably with  their  neighbors,  maintained  their  ur- 
banity and  self-possession  in  the  presence  of 
strangers,  and,  beyond  the  efforts  necessary  to  se- 
cure the  necessaries  of  life,  were  usually  disposed  to 
leave  the  improvement  of  things  to  time  and  chance. 
Always  possessing  intellect  and  sagacity  capable  of 
high  development  under  favorable  conditions,  they 
have  gradually  responded  to  the  progressive  spirit 
of  enterprise  and  of  the  strenuous  life  which  re- 
ceived its  greatest  impulse  from  immigration  from 
other  states  and  the  increased  opportunities  for 
communication  and  intermingling  of  the  people. 

The  population  almost  trebled  in  the  forty  years 
from  1860  to  1900.  It  increased  from  376,688  in  1860 
to  442,014  in  1870,  to  618,457  in  1880,  to  762,794  in 
1890  and  to  958,800  (499,242  males  and  459,558  fe- 
males) in  1900.  The  estimated  population  in  1908, 
based  upon  the  ratio  of  increase  for  the  decade  from 
1890  to  1900,  is  about  1,156,000.  In  1869  and  early 
in  1870  erroneous  reports  represented  that  the  popu- 
lation and  wealth  of  the  state  were  decreasing.  The 
census  of  1870  showed  that  while  there  was  a  general 
increase  of  population  of  over  20  per  cent,  in  the 
state,  there  was  a  slight  decrease  in  a  few  counties. 
There  was  a  decrease  of  794  in  Greenbrier,  752  in 
Hampshire  and  Hardy  combined,  615  in  Marion,  169 
in  Nicholas  and  30  in  Brooke.  All  the  other  counties 
showed  an  increase,  and  every  county  since  1870  has 
shown  an  increase  for  each  decade.  In  the  decade 
from  1890  to  1900,  the  counties  in  which  the  popula- 
tion increased  most  rapidly  were  McDowell  (156.8 
per  cent.),  Tucker  (108  per  cent.),  Webster  (85  per 
cent.),  Clay  (77  per  cent.),  Marion  (56.5  per  cent.), 
Fayette  (55.7  per  cent.),  Tyler  (52.6  per  cent.),  and 
Eandolph  (51.9  per  cent.).  The  counties  in  which 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  403 

the  population  increased  most  slowly  were  Jefferson 
(2.5  per  cent.),  Hampshire  (3.4  per  cent.),  Berkeley 
(4.1  per  cent.),  Hancock  (4.3  per  cent.),  Pendleton 
(5.2  per  cent.),  Monroe  (5.6  per  cent.),  Mason  (5.6 
per  cent.),  Mineral  (6.6  per  cent.),  Lewis  (6.8  per 
cent.),  and  Grant  (7  per  cent.). 

Of  the  population  in  1900,  the  colored  numbered 
43,567  (including  56  Chinese  and  12  Indians).  The 
negroes  were  located  principally  in  Berkeley,  Cabell, 
Fayette,  Greenbrier,  Harrison,  Jefferson,  Kanawha, 
McDowell,  Mineral,  Ohio  and  Summers.  Of  the 
247,970  males  of  voting  age,  only  14,786  were  ne- 
groes. Of  the  illiterate  voters  23,577  (11  per  cent.) 
were  white,  and  5,583  (38  per  cent.)  were  black.  The 
foreign  born  numbered  22,451  (principally  German, 
Irish,  Italian,  English  and  Scotch),  located  princi- 
pally in  Marion,  Marshall,  Ohio,  Tucker  and  Wood 
counties.  Excluding  foreigners,  the  larger  number 
of  immigrants  came  from  Virginia  (61,508),  Ohio 
(40,301),  and  Pennsylvania  (28,927). 

Since  1900  the  immigration  has  greatly  increased, 
especially  in  the  mining  and  manufacturing  regions 
of  the  northern  and  southern  parts  of  the  state.  The 
rapidity  of  the  growth  of  towns  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  growth  of  Morgantown,  whose  population  in- 
creased from  less  than  2,000  in  1900  to  over  12,000 
in  1908. 

The  census  of  1900  showed  a  remarkable  develop- 
ment of  material  wealth,  which  apparently  has  con- 
tinued to  increase  each  year  thereafter.  From  1870 
to  1900  the  value  of  farm  property  increased  from 
$120,000,000  to  nearly  $204,000,000,  and  the  value  of 
farm  products  from  $23,000,000  to  nearly  $45,- 
000,000.  For  the  same  period  the  value  of  manu- 
factured products  increased  from  $24,000,000  to 
$74,000,000.  The  amount  of  capital  invested  in 
manufacturing,  an  industry  which  is  still  in  its  in- 


404         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

fancy,  increased  from  $28,113,000  in  1890  to  nearly 
$55,720,000  in  1900.  For  the  same  period  the  value 
of  manufactured  products  increased  from  $38,702,- 
000  to  over  $74,000,000  (91.7  per  cent.).  From  1870 
to  1900  the  value  of  timber  products  increased  from 
about  $364,000  to  over  $10,000,000.  The  coal  produc- 
tion increased  from  1,568,000  tons  in  1880  to  22,- 
647,000  tons  in  1900,  and  to  25,760,000  tons  in  1903. 
The  value  of  the  products  of  coke  manufacture,  a 
rapidly  developing  industry,  increased  from  $1,- 
130,762  in  1890  to  $3,529,241  in  1900  (an  increase  of 
over  212  per  cent.).  The  value  of  oil  produced  in 

1902  was  $25,000,000,  and  of  gas  over  $5,000,000.    In 

1903  the  total  taxable  value  of  the  3,643  miles  of 
steam  railways  (including  931  miles  of  siding)  in 
the  state  was  $26,527,999.     In  1903  the  total  re- 
sources of  the  sixty-eight  national  banks  located  in 
the  state  were  $37,623,000,  and  of  the  148  state  banks 
$53,481,750.     The   deposits  were   $23,349,827   and 
$38,908,768  respectively. 

Education. 

In  1863  West  Virginia  had  no  common  school  sys- 
tem, no  normal  schools  and  no  university.  Before 
1863  the  few  schools  which  were  maintained  at  pub- 
lic expense  were  primarily  for  indigent  children. 
The  people  who  had  so  long  agitated  the  question  of 
free  schools  for  all,  in  1863  inserted  a  clause  in  their 
constitution  providing  for  their  establishment,  and 
promptly  secured  from  their  first  legislature  a  free 
school  law.  In  1865  the  state  superintendent  re- 
ported that  there  were  431  schools  and  387  teachers 
in  the  state.  In  1866  and  1867  provision  was  made 
for  colored  schools  where  the  number  of  colored 
children  was  sufficient.  The  constitution  provided 
that  white  and  colored  children  should  not  be  edu- 
cated in  the  same  schools. 


.WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  405 

TKe  new  school  system  encountered  many  ob- 
stacles. The  law  was  opposed  by  many  of  the  ultra- 
conservatives,  who  urged  the  people  to  disregard  it 
and  refused  to  cooperate  with  the  authorities.  In 
some  thinly  settled  counties  of  the  interior,  and 
along  the  southern  border,  the  people  were  not  able 
to  build  school  houses.  In  several  counties  the  su- 
perintendents were  too  ignorant  to  examine  the  in- 
competent teachers.  In  order  to  supply  the  great 
need  for  trained  teachers  the  legislature,  in  1867,  es- 
tablished normal  schools  at  Huntington,  at  Fairmont 
and  at  West  Liberty.  Three  additional  normal 
schools  were  established,  in  1872,  at  Shepherdstown, 
Athens  and  Glenville.  By  1869  the  school  system 
was  better  organized;  but  as  late  as  1872  over  half 
of  the  county  superintendents  failed  to  submit  re- 
ports, and  the  state  superintendent  reported  that  in 
many  districts  there  had  been  no  schools  for  two 
years.  In  many  instances  progress  was  hindered 
by  misuse  of  funds  by  the  school  boards,  who  voted 
themselves  a  liberal  compensation  for  their  services. 
The  sheriff  often  postponed  the  payment  of  the  sal- 
ary of  teachers  until  they  were  compelled  to  sell 
their  orders  at  great  sacrifice  to  the  curbstone 
broker,  often  a  confederate  of  the  sheriff.  In  spite 
of  laws  to  prevent,  this  abuse  continued  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Examinations  in  many 
counties  continued  to  be  conducted  so  loosely  and  so 
dishonestly  that  incompetent  teachers  found  little 
difficulty  in  securing  certificates  until,  finally,  the 
widespread  jobbery  in  teachers'  certificates  was  al- 
most terminated  in  1903  by  the  adoption  of  the  uni- 
form examination  system.  Supervision  of  schools 
by  the  county  superintendent  in  many  counties  re- 
mained a  fraud  and  a  farce  for  decades.  An  effort 
to  secure  more  efficient  supervision  was  made  in 
1901  by  forbidding  the  county  superintendent  to 


406        THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

teach,  and  in  1907  by  increasing  the  salary  of  the 
office. 

Although  progress  was  slow  for  so  many  years, 
it  has  been  more  rapid  in  recent  years.  High  schools 
have  increased  in  number  and  improved  in  char- 
acter. The  normal  schools,  whose  work  has  been 
largely  that  of  the  high  school,  have  begun  to  give 
more  attention  to  the  purpose  for  which  they  were 
founded.  A  state  board  of  education,  created  by  the 
revised  school  law  of  1908,  is  empowered  to  prepare 
a  course  of  study  for  the  public  schools  of  the  state, 
and  to  unify  and  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  school 
system  by  defining  the  relations  of  the  different 
kinds  of  schools,  and  by  securing  better  articulation 
of  the  school  work. 

West  Virginia  University,  since  its  foundation  in 
1867,  has  exerted  a  gradually  increasing  influence 
in  the  development  of  the  education  and  other  activi- 
ties of  the  state.  For  many  years  the  growth  of  the 
new  institution  was  very  slow  and  uncertain.  This 
retarded  growth  was  due  to  many  causes.  Among 
these  causes  may  be  enumerated  the  partially  local 
foundation,  the  sectional  questions  which  had  di- 
vided Virginia  long  before  the  war,  the  new  sec- 
tional jealousies,  the  post-bellum  political  questions 
and  partisanship,  the  lack  of  a  satisfactory  system 
of  secondary  schools,  the  divided  responsibility  and 
laissez  faire  policy,  and  the  lack  of  means  of  com- 
munication with  Morgantown,  the  seat  of  the  insti- 
tution. Gradually  the  power  and  importance  of 
these  causes  were  reduced  by  changing  conditions. 
Industrial  progress  has  been  a  prominent  factor  in 
the  transformation  of  the  earlier  school  into  a  real 
college  or  university.  Women  were  admitted  to  the 
collegiate  department  in  1889  and  to  all  departments 
in  1897. 

The  growth  of  the  university  has  been  greatly 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  407 

aided  by  the  development  of  better  secondary 
schools.  The  normal  schools  have  partially  solved 
the  problem  of  suitable  preparatory  schools.  A 
preparatory  school  at  Montgomery,  opened  January, 
1897,  was  established  by  an  act  of  Feb.  16,  1895. 
Another  was  established  at  Keyser  by  an  act  of 
1901. 

To  supply  the  demand  for  state  institutions  where 
colored  people  could  receive  special  or  more  ad- 
vanced academic  training,  the  colored  institute  at 
Farm  (Kanawha  county)  was  established  in  1891, 
and  the  Bluefield  colored  institute  (in  Mercer 
county)  was  established  in  1895. 

Interstate  Relations. 

Between  West  Virginia  and  her  neighbors,  since 
1863,  there  have  arisen  several  interstate  questions, 
two  of  the  oldest  and  most  prominent  of  which  are 
still  pending  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 

Among  those  of  minor  importance  were:  (1)  the 
boundary  question  with  Pennsylvania,  which  was 
settled  by  a  joint  boundary  commission  in  1885-86; 
(2)  the  trouble  along  the  Big  Sandy  boundary  be- 
tween West  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  resulting  from 
the  Hatfield-McCoy  feuds  which,  after  periodically 
disturbing  the  peace  for  several  years,  were  termi- 
nated by  the  wise  action  of  Governor  Fleming  in 
withdrawing  the  rewards  which  had  been  offered  by 
West  Virginia  for  the  arrest  of  some  of  the  McCoys ; 
and  (3),  the  question  of  transferring  from  Virginia 
to  West  Virginia  the  records  of  original  grants  of 
land  in  West  Virginia — a  question  which  was  satis- 
factorily settled  by  negotiations  of  Governor 
Fleming. 

More  important  was  the  contest  between  Virginia 
and  West  Virginia  for  jurisdiction  over  Jefferson 
and  Berkeley  counties,  settled  by  the  United  States 


408         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

Supreme  Court  in  1871,  and  the  Maryland  boundary 
and  the  Virginia  debt  questions  still  pending. 

The  boundary  question  with  Maryland  was  an  old 
one  in  regard  to  the  meaning  of  the  "  first  fountain 
of  the  Potomac,"  which,  in  Lord  Baltimore's  char- 
ter, was  mentioned  as  the  southern  point  of  the 
boundary  between  Maryland  and  Virginia,  and 
which  had  been  marked  by  the  Fairfax  stone  at  the 
head  of  the  North  Branch  in  accordance  with  the  de- 
cision of  the  king  in  council  in  1745,  after  a  careful 
survey  by  a  boundary  commission.  The  North 
Branch  had  practically  been  accepted  as  the  bound- 
ary several  years  before  the  Eevolution,  and  again 
in  '  1785,  and  even  later  when  Maryland  claimed 
that  her  western  boundary  should  be  located  about 
a  mile  west  of  the  Fairfax  stone.  Though  in  1852 
Maryland  finally  accepted  the  Fairfax  stone  as  the 
southern  point  of  her  western  boundary,  in  1859 
she  secured  a  new  survey  of  the  meridian  line  north- 
ward, which  terminated  at  the  Pennsylvania  bound- 
ary about  three-fourths  of  a  mile  west  of  the  old 
line  (which  had  been  surveyed  in  1788),  thus  laying 
the  basis  of  the  later  controversy  with  West  Vir- 
ginia in  regard  to  conflicting  land  claims  and  juris- 
diction in  the  triangular  strip  between  the  two  lines 
— some  of  which  culminated  in  personal  encounters 
and  breaches  of  the  peace,  which  each  state  treated 
as  a  crime  within  its  jurisdiction  and  attempted  to 
punish.  Though  West  Virginia,  wearied  with  the 
resulting  " border  war,"  in  1887  was  willing  to 
yield  her  claim  to  jurisdiction,  Maryland  ignored 
the  terms  of  the  proposition  and  three  years  later 
authorized  a  boundary  suit  before  the  Supreme 
Court,  into  which  the  attorney-general  of  Maryland 
injected  the  old  claim  to  the  South  Branch  as  the 
farthest  source  of  the  Potomac — a  claim  which,  if 
sustained,  would  extend  the  southwest  corner  of 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  409 

Maryland  southward  to  the  southern  border  of  Pen- 
dleton  county,  thus  completely  dividing  West  Vir- 
ginia into  two  non-contiguous  parts.  Governor 
Fleming,  with  the  sanction  of  the  legislature,  em- 
ployed counsel  to  defend  the  interests  of  the  state 
against  the  claims  of  Maryland  for  territory  which 
had  been  embraced  within  the  limits  of  Virginia 
since  1863,  and  which  had  been  in  the  undisturbed 
and  exclusive  possession  of  "West  Virginia,  and  un- 
der her  jurisdiction  and  control  since  1863.  After 
the  suit  was  brought,  Maryland  proposed  arbitra- 
tion, but  West  Virginia  has  preferred  to  leave  the 
settlement  to  the  court. 

The  Virginia  debt  question  arose  with  the  forma- 
tion of  West  Virginia,  and  has  been  a  prominent 
factor  or  issue  in  state  politics  at  various  times.  At 
the  time  of  the  separation,  it  was  agreed  that  the 
new  state  would  assume  a  just  proportion  of  the 
public  debt  of  Virginia  prior  to  1861,  "to  be  ascer- 
tained by  charging  to  it  all  the  expenditures  within 
the  limits  thereof  and  a  just  proportion  of  the  ordi- 
nary expenses  of  the  state  government,  since  any 
part  of  said  debt  was  contracted,  and  deducting 
therefrom  all  moneys  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the 
commonwealth  from  the  counties  included  within  the 
said  new  state,  during  the  same  period." 

In  1866  Virginia  appointed  commissioners  who, 
in  case  of  failure  to  secure  reunion  of  West  Vir- 
ginia to  Virginia,  were  authorized  to  negotiate  for 
the  adjustment  of  the  public  debt  and  a  fair  divi- 
sion of  the  public  property.  The  West  Virginia 
legislature,  expressing  a  willingness  for  a  prompt 
and  equitable  settlement,  authorized  the  governor 
to  appoint  three  commissioners  to  consider  the  ad- 
justment of  the  debt  question  after  the  announce- 
ment of  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  case 
brought  by  Virginia  for  the  recovery  of  Berkeley 


410        THE  HISTORY  OP  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

and  Jefferson  counties.  In  February,  1870,  Virginia 
appointed  a  commission  which  went  to  Wheeling  and 
induced  the  West  Virginia  legislature  to  appoint  a 
similar  commission  to  treat  for  the  purpose  of  ad- 
justing the  question.  The  West  Virginia  commis- 
sion, without  any  appropriation  for  expenses,  failed 
to  act ;  and,  a  year  later  when  an  appropriation  was 
made  by  the  succeeding  legislature  of  1871,  Virginia, 
having  changed  her  policy  on  the  mode  of  adjust- 
ment, proposed  arbitration  by  commissioners  who 
should  not  be  citizens  of  either  state — a  proposal 
which  West  Virginia  declined. 

The  West  Virginia  commission,  acting  alone,  went 
to  Eichmond,  examined  such  documents  as  were  ac- 
cessible, and  reported  that  of  the  $31,778,867.62, 
which  had  been  spent  on  internal  improvements, 
$2,784,329.29  had  been  spent  in  West  Virginia.  To 
the  latter  was  added  an  additional  $559,600  from 
other  sources,  and  from  the  sum  was  subtracted  a 
credit  of  $2,390,369.06,  exclusive  of  taxes  paid  to  the 
Virginia  government,  leaving  a  remainder  of  $953,- 
360.23  in  favor  of  Virginia.  On  the  ground  that  the 
commission  had  been  unable  to  secure  complete  data, 
and  for  other  reasons,  the  legislature  did  not  accept 
the  conclusions. 

In  1873  the  subject  was  considered  by  the  finance 
committee  of  the  Senate.  On  December  22  the 
chairman,  J.  M.  Bennett,  who  had  been  auditor  of 
Virginia  for  eight  years,  submitted  a  report  show- 
ing that  from  1822  to  1861  the  state  expenditures  in 
counties  in  West  Virginia  was  $3,366,929.29,  that 
the  counties  of  West  Virginia  had  paid  into  the 
treasury  of  Virginia  at  least  $3,892,000,  besides  an 
equitable  portion  of  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the 
government,  and  that  after  subtracting  from  this 
sum  the  amount  expended  for  internal  improve- 
ments in  West  Virginia  there  was  a  remainder  of 


WE*T  VIRGINIA,  1863-1909.  411 

over  $525,000  in  favor  of  West  Virginia.  This  view 
was  adopted  by  the  people  of  West  Virginia,  who, 
believing  that  they  owed  no  debt,  urged  the  basis 
of  settlement  which  was  persistently  refused  by 
Virginia. 

In  the  meantime,  in  1871,  Virginia  passed  a  fund- 
ing bill,  giving  in  exchange  for  the  old  bonds,  new 
bonds  for  two-thirds  the  amount  surrendered  and 
certificates  for  the  remaining  third.  These  certifi- 
cates identified  the  holders  of  the  unfunded  part  of 
the  debt,  and  were  to  be  paid  only  as  should  be  pro- 
vided in  accordance  with  the  future  settlement  be- 
tween Virginia  and  West  Virginia.  Thus  Virginia 
became  liable  for  these  certificates  as  soon  as  she 
settled  with  West  Virginia.  In  the  later  certificates 
of  1879,  1882  and  1892,  however,  there  was  a  clause 
releasing  Virginia  from  all  liability.  These  Vir- 
ginia certificates,  thrown  on  the  market  under  the 
misleading  name  of  "West  Virginia  certificates," 
greatly  injured  the  financial  standing  of  West  Vir- 
ginia and  prevented  immigration  and  investment  of 
capital  at  a  time  when  they  were  much  needed. 

In  March,  1894,  after  Virginia  had  compromised 
and  settled  with  her  creditors  and  had  been  released 
from  all  liability,  the  legislature  of  Virginia  adopted 
a  resolution  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  of  seven  members  to  negotiate  with 
West  Virginia  for  the  payment  of  the  certificates, 
and  on  the  basis  that  Virginia  was  bound  for  only 
two-thirds  of  the  old  debt.  In  1895  and  in  1896, 
when  the  negotiations  were  proposed,  West  Vir- 
ginia refused  to  accept  the  condition  that  Virginia 
should  be  held  liable  for  only  two-thirds  of  the  old 
debt.  Again  in  1900,  Virginia,  as  trustee  of  the 
certificate  holders,  tried  to  secure  an  adjustment, 
but  again  on  conditions  which  West  Virginia  could 
not  accept.  She  then  instituted  a  suit  to  secure  an 


412         THE  HISTORY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

accounting  and  settlement  under  the  supervision  and 
direction  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  On 
various  grounds,  including  lack  of  authority  of  the 
attorney-general  to  bring  the  suit,  the  plaintiff's 
action  as  trustee  for  private  individuals,  lack  of 
jurisdiction  by  the  court,  and  lack  of  power  to  render 
or  enforce  any  final  judgment  or  decree  in  the  case, 
the  attorneys  for  West  Virginia  entered  a  demurrer 
which  the  court,  in  March,  1907,  through  chief 
justice  Fuller,  overruled  "without  prejudice  to  any 
question. ' '  The  court  appointed  a  master  of  accounts 
under  whom  the  representatives  of  both  parties  to 
the  suit  are  collecting  data  for  presentation  to  the 
court  in  October,  1908.  This  data  was  not  ready  to 
be  submitted  to  the  court  when  it  convened. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Acts  of  the  West  Virginia  Legislature;  Ambler:  Dis~ 
franchisement  in  West  Virginia  (in  Yale  Review  of  May  and  August, 
1905);  Callahan:  West  Virginia,  in  University  Studies  in  West  Virginia 
History;  Census  Reports  (1860-1900);  Fast  and  Maxwell:  History  and 
Government  of  West  Virginia  (1901).  (Bibliography  on  pp.  496-503); 
Governors'  Messages  and  Public  Documents  of  West  Virginia  (1863- 
1907);  Hagans:  Formation  of  West  Virginia  (West  Virginia  Supreme 
Court  Reports,  Vol.  I.);  Journals  of  the  House  and  Senate  of  West  Vir- 
ginia (1863-1907);  Journal  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1863; 
Journal  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1872;  Lewis:  History  and 
Government  of  West  Virginia  (1896),  History  of  West  Virginia  (1889), 
Handbook  of  West  Virginia  (1904);  Maxwell:  Histories  of  Tucker,  Ran- 
dolph, and  Hampshire  Counties  (1884-97);  Reports  of  West  Virginia 
Geological  Survey;  Willey:  Formation  of  West  Virginia  (1901);  Wheeling 
Daily  Intelligencer.  A  full  bibliography  of  the  various  state  publica- 
tions of  West  Virginia  has  been  compiled  for  publication  under  the 
editorial  direction  of  R.  R.  Bowker  of  the  Publishers'  Weekly,  New  York. 

J.  M.  CALLAHAN, 

Professor  of  History  and  Political  Science,  West  Virginia  University. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAPTER  I. 
NOETH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY. 

Settlers  from  Virginia. 

GLANCE  at  the  map  will  show  why  North 
Carolina  received  its  first  permanent  set- 
tlers from  Virginia.  The  dangerous 
character  of  the  coast  of  North  Carolina 
made  the  approach  too  difficult  and  uncer- 
tain to  admit  of  colonization  directly  from  Europe. 
This  became  apparent  from  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's 
efforts  to  plant  a  colony  on  Roanoke  Island,  and 
Raleigh  himself  directed  John  White,  in  1587,  to  seek 
a  site  on  Chesapeake  Bay.  His  commands,  through 
no  fault  of  White's,  were  not  obeyed,  and  the  colony 
failed.  Twenty-two  years  later  the  London  Com- 
pany, guided  by  Raleigh's  experience,  directed  the 
Jamestown  colony  towards  the  Chesapeake.  The 
first  settlers,  for  obvious  reasons,  sought  lands  ly- 
ing along  navigable  streams,  consequently  the  water 
courses,  to  a  large  extent,  determined  the  direction 
of  the  colony's  growth.  Many  of  the  streams  of 
southeastern  Virginia  flow  toward  Currituck  and 
Albemarle  sounds  in  North  Carolina,  and  the  sources 
of  the  most  important  rivers  of  eastern  North  Caro- 
lina are  in  Virginia.  Furthermore,  the  soil,  the 
climate,  the  vegetation  and  the  animal  life  of  the 
Albemarle  region  are  of  the  same  character  as  those 
of  southeastern  Virginia.  Nothing,  therefore,  was 

413 


414       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

more  natural  than  that  the  planters  of  Virginia, 
searching  for  good  bottom  lands,  should  gradually 
extend  their  plantations  southward  along  the 
shores  of  Albemarle  Sound  and  the  rivers  that  flow 
into  it. 

The  Virginians  early  manifested  a  lively  interest 
in  the  Albemarle  region.  Nansemond  county,  ad- 
joining North  Carolina,  was  settled  as  early  as  1609, 
and  during  the  following  years  many  an  adventur- 
ous hunter,  trader  and  explorer  made  himself  famil- 
iar with  the  waters  that  pour  into  Albemarle  and 
Currituck  sounds.  In  1622  John  Pory,  secretary  of 
Virginia,  after  a  trip  to  the  Chowan  reported  that 
he  found  it  "a  very  fruitful  and  pleasant  country, 
yielding  two  harvests  in  a  year."  Seven  years  later 
Charles  I.  granted  the  region  to  Sir  Eobert  Heath, 
and  there  are  reasons  for  believing  that  Heath's 
assigns  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  plant  a 
settlement  within  the  grant.  About  the  year  1646 
the  governor  of  Virginia  sent  two  expeditions,  one 
by  water,  the  other  overland,  against  the  Indians 
along  the  Albemarle  and  Currituck  sounds,  and 
members  of  these  expeditions  purchased  lands  from 
the  Indians.  During  the  next  few  years  other  ex- 
peditions were  made.  Roger  Green,  a  clergyman  of 
Nansemond  county,  became  interested  in  the  country 
to  the  southward,  and  in  1653  obtained  a  grant  of 
10,000  acres  for  the  first  100  persons  who  should 
settle  on  Roanoke  River,  south  of  Chowan,  and  1,000 
acres  for  himself  "as  a  reward  for  his  own  first  dis- 
covery and  for  his  encouragement  of  the  settle- 
ment." It  is  not  known  whether  he  followed  this 
grant  with  a  settlement,  but  historians  have  as- 
sumed that  he  did.  The  next  year  Governor  Yeard- 
ley,  of  Virginia,  sent  an  expedition  to  Roanoke 
Island  which  led  to  other  explorations  into  what  is 
now  eastern  North  Carolina,  and  two  years  later  the 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.  415 

Assembly  of  Virginia  commissioned  Thomas  Dew 
and  Thomas  Francis  to  explore  the  coast  between 
Cape  Hatteras  and  Cape  Fear.  The  sons  of  Gov- 
ernor Yeardley,  therefore,  had  good  grounds  for 
their  boast  that  the  northern  country  of  Carolina 
had  been  explored  by  "  Virginians  born." 

These  expeditions  were  naturally  followed  by  a 
southward  movement  of  settlers.  Just  when  this 
movement  began  cannot  be  stated  with  accuracy. 
There  may  have  been  settlers  in  Albemarle  before 
1653.  It  may  be  true  that  Eoger  Green  did  lead  the 
first  colony  there  in  that  year.  Certainly  before  the 
year  1663  John  Battle,  Thomas  Belfe,  Eoger  Wil- 
liams, Thomas  Jarvis  and  perhaps  others  had  pur- 
chased lands  from  the  Indians  who  dwelt  along  the 
waters  of  Albemarle  Sound  and  settled  them.  The 
grant  to  George  Durant  by  Kilcocanen,  chief  of  the 
Yeopim  Indians,  dated  March  1,  1661  [1662],  for  a 
tract  lying  along  Perquimans  Kiver  and  Albemarle 
Sound,  is  the  oldest  grant  for  land  in  North  Carolina 
now  extant.  But  Durant  came  into  that  region  two 
years  before  he  made  his  purchase,  and  there  were 
purchases  prior  to  his,  for  his  grant  recites  a  previ- 
ous one  made  to  Samuel  Pricklove  and  is  witnessed 
by  two  Englishmen.  Besides,  in  1662,  purchases 
from  the  Indians  had  become  so  common  that  the 
government  ordered  them  to  be  disregarded  and  re- 
quired that  patents  be  taken  out  for  these  lands  un- 
der the  laws  of  Virginia.  Three  years  later  the  sur- 
veyor of  Albemarle  declared  that  a  county  "forty 
miles  square  will  not  comprehend  the  inhabitants 
there  already  settled."  These  settlers,  for  the  most 
part,  came  from  Virginia;  but  others  came  also, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  first  decade  of  its  history 
the  Albemarle  colony  contained  1,400  inhabitants 
between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  of  age,  and  the  set- 


416       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

tlements  extended  from  Chowan  Eiver  to  Currituck 
Sound.* 

Growth  of  Settlements. 

From  Albemarle  the  population  moved  slowly 
southward.  The  stages  of  its  progress  may  be 
marked  by  the  four  principal  river  systems  of  east- 
ern Carolina — the  Boanoke,  the  Pamlico  [Tar],  the 
Neuse  and  the  Cape  Fear.  The  impatience  of  the 
Lords  Proprietors  for  the  extension  of  the  settle- 
ments to  the  southward  outstripped  the  movement 
of  population.  They  blamed  the  colonists  for  not 
making  greater  progress,  and  assigned  this  delay  as 
one  reason  why  they  themselves  took  more  interest 
in  the  colony  on  the  Ashley  Eiver  than  in  the  one  on 
Albemarle  Sound.  However,  in  1676,  they  learned 
that  the  fault  was  not  with  the  people  but  with  their 
rulers,  who  "had  engrossed  the  Indian  trade  to 
themselves  and  feared  that  it  would  be  intercepted 
by  those  who  should  plant  farther  among  them." 
The  colonial  officials  accordingly  had  prevented  set- 
tlements to  the  southward,  but  now  the  Lords  Pro- 
prietors issued  peremptory  orders  commanding  the 
governor  to  encourage  the  opening  of  that  section, 
and  settlers  began  to  push  their  way  into  it.  No 
record  of  their  progress  is  found  until  they  reached 
Pamlico  Eiver,  where,  in  1691,  a  small  party  of 
French  Huguenots  from  Virginia  had  planted  a  set- 
tlement. A  few  years  later  a  pestilence  among  the 
Indians  opened  the  way  for  other  settlers,  who  con- 
tinued to  drift  southward  from  Albemarle.  By  1696 
the  settlement  was  considered  of  sufficient  import- 


*In  1660  a  party  of  New  Englanders  attempted  without  success  to  plant  a  settle- 
ment on  the  Cape  Fear.  Four  years  later  a  party  of  royalist  refugees  to  the  island  of 
Barbadoes  established  a  colony  near  the  mouth  of  that  river.  In  1665  they  were 
joined  by  another  party  from  Barbadoes  under  the  leadership  of  Sir  John  Yeamans, 
who  had  been  appointed  governor.  The  settlement  extending  several  miles  up  and 
down  the  river  was  erected  into  a  county  called  Clarendon,  and  at  one  time  numbered 
800  souls.  Yeamans,  however,  soon  returned  to  Barbadoes.  The  Lords  Proprietors 
took  but  little  interest  in  the  colony,  but  directed  their  energies  towards  building  up  a 
rival  settlement  farther  southward.  The  Clarendon  colony,  after  many  hardships  and 
much  suffering,  was  abandoned  in  1667.  Itjisof  interest  merely  as  an  historical  faet. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.     41? 

ance  to  be  erected  into  a  county  called  Archdale, 
afterwards  Bath,  extending  from  the  Albemarle  tt> 
the  Neuse,  and  to  be  allowed  two  representatives  in 
the  General  Assembly.  In  1704  a  site  for  a  town 
was  selected,  and  the  next  year  the  town  was  in- 
corporated under  the  name  of  Bath.  At  the  close 
of  its  first  five  years  Bath  could  boast  of  a  library 
and  a  dozen  houses.  Though  at  times  the  home  of 
wealth  and  culture,  Bath  never  became  more  than  a 
sleepy  little  village.  It  derives  its  chief  distinction 
from  the  unimportant  fact  that  it  was  the  first  town 
in  the  province.  The  settlers  on  the  Pamlico,  how- 
ever, prospered,  and  their  good  reports  induced 
others  to  join  them.  In  December,  1705,  the  Council, 
"taking  into  their  serious  consideration"  the  fact 
that  Bath  county  had  "grown  populous  and  [was] 
daily  increasing,"  divided  it  into  three  precincts, 
with  the  right  to  send  two  representatives  each  to 
the  Assembly.  Two  years  later  another  body  of 
Huguenots  from  Virginia,  "considerable  in  num- 
bers," passed  the  Pamlico  and  occupied  lands  on  the 
Neuse  and  Trent  rivers. 

In  1710  came  a  colony  of  German  Palatines. 
Driven  from  their  native  land  on  account  of  their 
religion,  they  had  sought  refuge  in  England,  where 
they  were  warmly  welcomed  by  the  Queen.  They 
came,  however,  in  such  numbers  that  good  Queen 
Anne  found  them  a  burden  on  her  hands,  and  wel- 
comed an  opportunity  to  provide  for  some  of  them  in 
America.  This  opportunity  came  through  Chris- 
topher De  Graffenried,  a  native  of  the  city  of  Bern, 
who  was  in  London  with  a  countryman,  Louis 
Mitchell,  planning  to  settle  a  colony  of  Swiss  in 
North  Carolina.  De  Graffenried's  interest  in  Caro- 
lina had  been  excited  some  years  before  by  the  Duke 
of  Albemarle,  who  had  discoursed  to  him  on  "the 
beauty,  goodness  and  riches  of  English  America," 

Vol.  1—27. 


418       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

so  that  he  determined  to  seek  "a  more  considerable 
fortune  in  those  far-off  countries."  He  was  en- 
couraged in  his  purpose  by  the  Lords  Proprietors, 
who  granted  him  "very  favorable  conditions  and 
privileges."  The  Queen,  too,  contributed  £4,000 
sterling  to  his  enterprise  in  consideration  of  his 
settling  100  families  of  the  Palatines  in  Carolina. 

The  Palatines  sailed  in  January,  1710,  but  with- 
out De  Graffenried,  who  waited  in  England  for  his 
colony  from  Bern.  During  a  terrible  voyage  of  thir- 
teen weeks,  more  than  half  of  the  colonists  died  at 
sea.  The  others,  after  many  hardships  and  cruel 
suffering,  finally  arrived  in  Carolina  and  were  set- 
tled on  a  tongue  of  land  between  the  Neuse  and 
Trent  rivers.  De  Graffenried  followed  in  June,  ar- 
riving in  Carolina  in  September.  He  found  the 
Palatines  in  a  wretched  condition,  "sickness,  want 
and  desperation  having  reached  their  climax." 
They  had  come  at  an  unfortunate  time,  and  De 
Graffenried 's  utmost  exertions  could  do  but  little  to 
relieve  their  situation.  The  province  was  in  the 
midst  of  Gary's  rebellion,  and  this  trouble  was 
scarcely  settled  before  the  most  disastrous  Indian 
war  in  the  history  of  North  Carolina  broke  out.  The 
Palatines  and  Swiss  suffered  terribly;  their  homes 
were  burned,  their  crops  destroyed,  and  many  of 
their  number  slaughtered.  The  settlement,  how- 
ever, survived  these  disasters  and,  although  De 
Graffenried  returned  to  Europe  broken  in  fortune, 
the  settlers  went  to  work  with  a  will,  cleared  away 
the  ashes,  rebuilt  their  cabins,  founded  the  town  of 
New  Bern,  and  started  on  a  prosperous  career. 

Cape  Fear  Region. 

After  the  failure  of  Yeamans'  colony  in  1667,  the 
Cape  Fear  region  had  fallen  into  disrepute,  and 
more  than  half  a  century  passed  before  another  at- 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.     419 

tempt  was  made  to  plant  a  settlement  there.  Four 
causes  contributing  to  this  delay  were :  the  character 
of  the  coast  at  the  mouth  of  the  river;  the  hostility 
of  the  Indians ;  the  pirates  who  sought  refuge  there 
in  large  numbers,  and  the  closing  of  the  Carolina 
land  office  by  the  Lords  Proprietors.  The  character 
of  the  coast,  of  course,  could  not  be  changed,  and  in 
spite  of  all  that  modern  science  can  do  still  remains 
an  obstacle  to  the  development  of  a  splendid  country. 
The  blow  that  upset  the  power  of  the  Cape  Fear 
Indians  was  struck  by  Col.  Maurice  Moore  in  1715, 
and  three  years  later  the  pirates  were  driven  out. 
But  the  orders  of  the  Lords  Proprietors  still  re- 
mained. Enterprising  men,  however,  familiar  with 
the  advantages  of  the  region  refused  to  recognize 
the  moral  right  of  the  Proprietors  to  prevent  their 
clearing  and  settling  it  in  the  name  of  civilization, 
and  about  the  year  1723  they  began  to  lay  out  their 
claims,  clear  their  fields  and  build  their  cabins  with- 
out regard  to  the  formalities  of  law.  When  Gov- 
ernor Burrington  saw  that  they  were  determined  to 
take  up  lands  without  either  acquiring  titles  or  pay- 
ing rents,  he  decided  that  the  interests  of  the  Pro- 
prietors would  be  served  by  his  giving  the  one  and 
receiving  the  other.  He  therefore,  upon  petition 
from  the  Assembly,  ordered  the  Carolina  land  office 
to  be  reopened.  Good  titles  thus  assured,  settlers 
were  not  wanting.  Governor  Burrington,  Maurice 
Moore  and  his  brother,  Roger  Moore,  led  the  way, 
followed  by  the  Moseleys,  the  Howes,  the  Porters, 
the  Lillingtons,  the  Ashes,  the  Harnetts,  and  others 
whose  names  are  closely  identified  with  the  history 
of  North  Carolina.  Here  on  the  Cape  Fear  they 
were  joined  by  numerous  other  families  from  the 
Albemarle,  from  South  Carolina,  from  Barbadoes, 
and  other  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  from  New 
England,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  from  Eu- 


420       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

rope.  On  the  west  bank  of  the  Cape  Fear 
Maurice  Moore  laid  off  a  town,  and  gave  sites  for 
a  graveyard,  a  church,  a  court-house,  a  market- 
house,  and  other  public  buildings,  and  a  commons 
"for  the  use  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town."  With 
an  eye  to  royal  favors,  he  named  the  place  Bruns- 
wick in  honor  of  the  reigning  family. 

But  Brunswick,  like  Bath,  did  not  flourish,  and 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years  yielded  with  no  good 
grace  to  a  younger  and  more  vigorous  rival,  six- 
teen miles  farther  up  the  river,  which  was  named 
in  honor  of  Spencer  Compton,  Earl  of  "Wilmington. 
The  settlement  prospered,  and  at  the  close  of  its 
first  decade  Governor  Johnston  declared  that  its  in- 
habitants were  "a  sober  and  industrious  set  of 
people,"  that  they  had  made  "an  amazing  progress 
in  their  improvement, ' '  and  that  the  Cape  Fear  had 
become  the  "place  of  the  greatest  trade  in  the  whole 
province." 

Settlements  extended  no  further  during  the  pro- 
prietary period.  In  1728,  when  the  interests  of  the 
Proprietors  passed  to  the  Crown,  the  population  of 
North  Carolina  numbered  30,000,  and  extended 
along  the  coast  from  the  Virginia  line  to  the  Cape 
Fear. 

The  Proprietary. 

The  name  "Carolana"  or  "Carolina"  was  ap- 
plied to  this  territory  by  Charles  I.  in  his  grant  to 
Sir  Eobert  Heath  in  1629,  and  was  retained  by 
Charles  II.  in  his  grant  to  the  Lords  Proprietors 
thirty-four  years  later.  The  latter  grant,  issued 
March  24,  1663,  was  made  to  Edward  Hyde,  Earl  of 
Clarendon,  High  Chancellor  of  England;  George 
Monk,  Duke  of  Albemarle,  Master  of  the  King's 
Horse  and  Captain- General  of  all  his  forces;  Wil- 
liam, Lord  Craven;  John,  Lord  Berkely;  Anthony 
Cooper,  Lord  Ashley,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.     421 

afterwards  Earl  of  Shaf tesbury ;  Sir  George  Car- 
teret,  Vice- Chamber  lain  of  the  King's  Household; 
Sir  William  Berkely,  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  Sir 
John  Colleton.  The  names  of  these  grantees  are  still 
to  be  found  on  the  map  of  the  Carolinas.  In  North 
Carolina  are  Albemarle  Sound,  Craven  and  Car- 
teret  counties;  in  South  Carolina,  Clarendon  and 
Colleton  counties,  Berkely  Parish,  and  the  Ashley 
and  Cooper  rivers,  while  in  Charleston  we  have  the 
name  of  the  King.  The  object  of  the  grantees  was 
to  plant  colonies  in  America;  the  motives  were  de- 
clared to  be  "a  laudable  and  pious  zeal  for  the 
propagation  of  the  Christian  faith"  and  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  King's  empire  and  dominions.  The 
grant  included  all  the  territory  lying  between  31° 
and  36°  N.  Lat.,  westward  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
to  the  "South  Seas."  Afterwards  when  it  was  as- 
certained that  these  boundaries  did  not  include  the 
settlements  already  planted  on  the  Albemarle,  a 
second  charter  was  issued,  June  30,  1665,  extending 
the  limits  30  minutes  northward  and  two  degrees 
southward.  This  region  was  erected  into  the 
"Province  of  Carolina,"  over  which  the  grantees 
were  constituted  "the  true  and  absolute  Lords  Pro- 
prietors. ' ' 

Government. 

The  Lords  Proprietors  derived  from  their  char- 
ters ample  powers  of  government,  but  the  uncer- 
tainty with  which  they  exercised  these  powers  re- 
sulted in  weakness  and  confusion.  Plan  after  plan 
was  promulgated  and  declared  to  be  permanent,  only 
to  be  soon  cast  aside  for  some  new  scheme.  The  in- 
structions of  1663  to  Sir  William  Berkely  outlining 
a  plan  of  government  for  Albemarle  county  gave 
way  two  years  later  to  a  more  elaborate  constitution 
called  the  Concessions  of  1665.  The  Concessions  in 
their  turn  were  supplanted  in  1670  by  the  Funda- 


422       THE  HISTOKY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

mental  Constitutions  of  John  Locke;  but  accom- 
panying the  command  to  put  these  into  operation 
came  instructions  modifying  their  provisions.  The 
Lords  Proprietors  continued  this  sort  of  tinkering 
with  their  constitution  for  some  years,  so  that,  as 
Dr.  Bassett  says:  "For  the  first  fifty  years  of  the 
life  of  the  colony  the  inhabitants  could  not  be  sure 
that  their  government  was  stable." 

The  constitution  of  the  proprietary  period  pre- 
sents a  theoretical  as  well  as  a  practical  side.  The 
former  found  expression  in  the  Fundamental  Con- 
stitutions. Adopted  and  signed  by  the  Proprietors, 
July  21,  1669,  and  declared  to  be  unalterable  and 
perpetual,  the  Fundamental  Constitutions  speedily 
ran  through  five  distinct  editions  and  were  shortly 
abandoned  altogether.  They  outlined  an  elaborate 
and  complicated  scheme  of  government  designed  to 
secure  the  interests  of  the  Lords  Proprietors,  to 
"prevent  the  growth  of  a  numerous  democracy," 
and  to  establish  a  government  in  harmony  with 
monarchy.*  Eealizing  the  impossibility  of  putting 
this  scheme  into  full  operation,  the  Lords  Propri- 
etors contented  themselves  with  instructing  the  gov- 
ernors "to  come  as  nigh  it"  as  they  could. 

The  practical  side  of  the  constitution  was  the 
plan  of  government  actually  established.  The  ex- 
ecutive was  composed  of  a  governor  and  a  council. 
The  Lords  Proprietors  appointed  the  governor  un- 
til 1691.  Then  they  united  the  northern  and  south- 
ern provinces  under  one  governor,  whom  they  au- 
thorized to  appoint  a  deputy  in  the  former.  In  1710 
they  decided  to  separate  the  two  provinces  and  ap- 
point a  governor  of  North  Carolina  "independent 


*The  Fundamental  Constitutions  have  been  analyzed  so  often  that,  with  the  brief 
space  at  command,  it  has  not  been  deemed  advisable  to  do  so  here.  Consult  Baa- 
sett's  Constitutional  Beginnings  of  North  Carolina,  in  Johns  Hopkins  University 
Studies,  XII.;  also  Da  vis's  Locke's  Fundamental  Constitutions,  North  Carolina  Booklet 
VII.,  No.  1.  In  this  analysis  Bassett's  Constitutional  Beginnings  has  been  fol- 
lowed, his  citations  being  carefully  verified. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.  423 

of  the  governor  of  South  Carolina, "  but  this  plan 
was  not  carried  into  effect  until  1712.  The  council 
at  first  consisted  of  not  less  than  six  nor  more  than 
twelve  members  appointed  by  the  governor.  In  1670 
its  composition  was  changed  to  consist  of  five  depu- 
ties selected  by  the  Proprietors,  and  five  members 
chosen  by  the  Assembly.  Another  change  was  ef- 
fected in  1691  when  the  governor  was  instructed 
that  the  deputies  alone  were  to  compose  the  council. 
This  arrangement  was  continued  until  1718,  when 
the  Proprietors  decided  to  abolish  the  deputies  and 
to  select  a  council  of  not  more  than  twelve ;  but  this 
plan  was  not  made  effective  until  1724.  In  the  event 
of  the  death  or  absence  of  the  governor,  the  council 
chose  a  president  to  administer  the  affairs  of  the 
government  until  the  vacancy  could  be  filled.  The 
powers  and  duties  of  the  governor  and  council  were1 
ample  for  all  executive  purposes,  but  it  is  imprac- 
ticable to  enumerate  them  here. 

Before  1691  the  Assembly  was  unicameral;  aftef 
that  date  bicameral.  During  the  first  period  it  was 
composed  of  the  governor,  council  and  representa- 
tives elected  by  the  people ;  during  the  second  period 
the  council  and  the  representatives  separated  into 
an  upper  and  a  lower  house.  Under  the  Concessions 
of  1665  the  people  were  authorized  to  elect  twelve 
representatives,  but  this  number  was  increased  to 
twenty  in  1670,  when  Albemarle  county  was  divided 
into  four  precincts  and  five  members  were  allotted 
to  each.  Other  precincts  were  created  as  the  popu- 
lation increased,  until  the  number  of  representatives 
during  the  proprietary  period  reached  twenty-eight. 
The  regular  sessions  of  the  Assembly  were  biennial, 
but  the  governor  and  council  could  convene,  pro- 
rogue or  dissolve  sessions  at  will.  The  lower  house 
elected  its  own  officers,  decided  contests  involving 
the  election  of  its  members,  and  had  the  right  to 


434       THE  HISTOKY  OF  NORTH  CAEOLINA. 

expel  members.  The  Lords  Proprietors  exercised 
the  right  of  veto  on  the  Assembly's  measures,  but 
all  bills  levying  a  tax  or  carrying  an  appropriation 
had  to  originate  in  the  lower  house.  Through  a 
process  of  gradual  evolution  the  Assembly,  from  a 
position  of  weakness,  came  to  be  the  chief  factor  in 
the  government,  and  the  lower  house  acquired  such 
ascendancy  as  to  become  practically  the  entire  As- 
sembly. 

The  judicial  system  embraced  the  general  court, 
the  precinct  courts,  a  court  of  chancery,  an  ad- 
miralty court,  and  in  some  instances  the  council. 
The  first  was  an  appellate  court  held  for  many  years 
by  the  governor  and  deputies.  In  1691  the  Propri- 
etors directed  the  governor  to  appoint  a  "  chief 
judge"  and  four  justices  to  hold  this  court,  though 
several  years  elapsed  before  this  was  done.  In  1713 
a  chief  justice  was  appointed  with  a  commission 
issuing  directly  from  the  Lords  Proprietors.  He 
presided  over  the  court  which  thereafter  was  com- 
posed of  a  variable  number  of  associates.  The  court 
met  three  times  a  year,  sitting  both  as  a  court  of  the 
King's  Bench,  Common  Pleas  and  Exchequer,  and 
as  a  court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  and  General  Gaol 
Delivery.  From  its  decisions  in  cases  involving 
£500  or  over,  an  appeal  lay  to  the  King.  The  pre- 
cinct courts  were  held  by  justices  appointed  by  the 
governor  and  council.  They  had  jurisdiction  over 
civil  suits  involving  less  than  £50,  and  also  exercised 
such  non-judicial  duties  as  caring  for  public  high- 
ways, creating  road  districts,  appointing  constables, 
granting  franchises  for  mill  sites,  and  other  similar 
functions.  The  court  of  chancery  was  held  by  the 
governor  and  council.  The  council  also  probated 
wills,  received  and  examined  accounts  of  executors, 
divided  land,  and  tried  public  officials  for  miscon- 
duct in  office.  The  admiralty  court  had  jurisdiction 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.    425 

over  cases  involving  violations  of  the  navigation 
acts. 

In  the  fall  of  1663  the  Lords  Proprietors  in- 
structed Sir  William  Berkely  to  appoint  a  governor 
and  six  councillors  for  Albemarle  county.  The  gov- 
ernor and  council  were  authorized  to  appoint  all 
other  officers,  and  together  with  representatives 
elected  by  the  people,  or  perhaps  with  the  whole 
body  of  people  in  general  meeting,  to  constitute  a 
Grand  Assembly.  William  Drummond  became  the 
first  governor.  History  has  assigned  to  him  a  char- 
acter which  subsequent  governors  might  have  imi- 
tated with  profit.  During  his  administration  the 
first  Assembly  held  in  North  Carolina  met,  prob- 
ably in  the  spring  of  1665.  One  of  its  earliest  acts 
was  to  petition  the  Lords  Proprietors  that  lands  in 
Albemarle,  then  held  at  a  rent  of  a  half -penny  per 
acre  payable  in  specie,  might  be  held,  as  in  Vir- 
ginia, at  one  farthing  per  acre  payable  in  commodi- 
ties. After  a  delay  of  three  years  the  Proprietors 
granted  the  prayer,  issuing  what  is  known  as  the 
Great  Deed  of  Grant.  Efforts  were  afterwards 
made  to  revoke  the  Great  Deed,  but  the  Assembly, 
regarding  it  as  a  document  of  the  first  importance, 
clung  to  it  tenaciously,  and  sixty-three  years  after 
its  date  ordered  its  text  spread  on  the  journal  and 
the  original  placed  in  the  special  custody  of  the 
speaker. 

Character  of  the  Governors. 

The  Proprietors  were  not  always  fortunate  in 
their  selection  of  governors  for  Carolina.  Some 
were  weak,  some  bad  men,  and  but  few  cared  any- 
thing for  the  people  whom  they  were  sent  to  rule. 
In  fact  the  system  itself  was  ill-calculated  to  pro- 
duce harmony  and  good- will  between  the  governors 
and  the  people.  They  were  not  the  people's  govern- 
ors; they  were  the  Proprietors'  vicegerents,  and 


426      THE  HISTOKY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

their  first  duty  was  to  care  for  the  interests  of  their 
masters,  rather  than  for  the  welfare  of  the  people. 
The  result  of  course  was  continual  clashings  be- 
tween the  people  and  their  governors.  Jenkins, 
Miller,  Eastchurch,  Sothel,  Gary  and  Glover  were 
each  in  turn  either  driven  out  or  kept  out  of  the 
governorship  by  a  dominant  faction  of  the  people. 
Indeed,  in  1711  Governor  Spotswood,  of  Virginia, 
declared  that  the  people  of  North  Carolina  were  so 
used  to  turning  out  their  governors  that  they  had 
come  to  think  they  had  a  right  to  do  so. 

The  People. 

Historians  have  condemned  these  early  Caro- 
linians as  a  lawless  and  contentious  people,  but  those 
who  pronounce  this  judgment  little  understand  the 
spirit  that  prompted  them.  When  governed  ac- 
cording to  the  terms  of  its  charter,  no  colony  on  the 
continent  was  more  orderly  or  more  law-abiding; 
on  the  other  hand,  no  people  were  ever  more  jealous 
of  their  constitutional  rights  or  quicker  to  resent 
the  encroachments  of  power.  What  if  their  resent- 
ments did  sometimes  run  them  into  excesses;  shall 
we  not  pardon  something  to  the  spirit  of  liberty? 
Their  charters  guaranteed  to  them  "all  liberties, 
franchises  and  privileges"  possessed  and  enjoyed 
by  their  fellow  subjects  in  the  realm  of  England, 
Adherence  to  these  charters  and  resistance  to  thei* 
perversion  were  cardinal  principles  with  North 
Carolinians  throughout  their  colonial  history,  and 
their  records  of  that  period  are  full  of  assertions  of 
the  principles  upon  which  the  American  Bevolution 
was  fought.  As  early  as  1678,  "when  a  few  families 
were  struggling  into  a  consciousness  of  statehood 
along  the  wide  waters  of  our  eastern  sounds,"  they 
declared  that  "the  doctrine  of  non-resistance 
against  arbitrary  power  and  oppression  is  absurd, 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.     427 

slavish  and  destructive  to  the  good  and  happiness 
of  mankind.'*  In  1716,  when  the  colony  was  but 
fifty  years  old  and  the  population,  all  told,  was  less 
than  10,000  souls,  the  Assembly  entered  on  its  jour- 
nal the  declaration  "that  the  impressing  of  the  in- 
habitants, or  their  property,  under  pretense  of  its 
being  for  the  public  service,  without  authority  from 
the  Assembly,  was  unwarrantable  and  a  great  in- 
fringement upon  the  liberty  of  the  subject."  Gov- 
ernor Burrington,  who  spoke  with  the  authority  of 
ten  years  of  residence  among  them,  wrote  that  the 
early  Carolinians  were  "subtle  and  crafty  to  ad- 
miration," adding:  "The  people  are  neither  to  be 
cajoled  or  outwitted;  whenever  a  governor  attempts 
to  effect  anything  by  these  means,  he  will  lose  his 
labor  and  show  his  ignorance.  They  insist 

that  no  public  money  can  or  ought  to  be  paid  but 
by  a  claim  given  to  and  allowed  by  the  house  of  bur- 
gesses." And  John  Urmstone,  a  missionary  among 
them,  declared  that  the  people  respected  no  author- 
ity that  did  not  emanate  from  themselves.  In  a 
word,  as  Dr.  Alderman,  in  his  Life  of  William 
Hooper,  has  said:  "The  key  to  North  Carolina  char- 
acter in  this  inchoate  period  is  the  subordination  of 
everything — material  prosperity,  personal  ease, 
financial  development — to  the  remorseless  assertion 
of  the  sacredness  of  chartered  rights,"  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  proprietary  government. 

Rebellions. 

During  this  period  occurred  two  popular  upris- 
ings serious  enough  to  be  dignified  in  history  as  re- 
bellions. The  first,  known  as  Culpepper's  Eebellion, 
was  occasioned  by  England's  commercial  policy. 
Other  causes  accentuated  the  difficulties,  but  the 
primary  cause  was  the  Navigation  Act — "that  mis- 
chievous statute  with  which  the  mother  country  was 


428       THE  HISTOKY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

rapidly  weaning  the  affections  of  its  colonies  all 
along  the  American  seaboard."  Designed  at  first 
to  secure  the  foreign  trade  of  the  colonies  for  Brit- 
ish merchants,  the  act  was  extended  in  1672  to  cover 
intercolonial  commerce  also.  Duties  were  levied  on 
certain  enumerated  articles  exported  from  one  col- 
ony to  another  which,  if  strictly  enforced,  would 
seriously  cripple  if  they  did  not  destroy  the  trade 
of  Albemarle  with  New  England.  This  was  Albe- 
marle's  principal  trade;  the  act,  therefore,  together 
with  some  other  grievances,  created  so  much  dis- 
content that  Governor  Carteret,  finding  himself 
powerless  to  preserve  order,  resigned  the  govern- 
ment and  sailed  for  England,  leaving  the  colony  "in 
ill-order  and  in  worse  hands.*'  The  Lords  Pro- 
prietors appointed  Thomas  Eastchurch  to  succeed 
him,  and  at  the  same  time  they  procured  the  appoint- 
ment of  Thomas  Miller  as  collector  of  the  customs. 
Both  were  colonists  and  both  were  at  that  time  in 
London.  Eastchurch  had  been  speaker  of  the  As- 
sembly, and  Miller  was  the  bearer  of  an  important 
document  from  the  Assembly  to  the  Lords  Propri- 
etors. The  latter  naturally  thought  these  appoint- 
ments would  please  the  people  of  Albemarle.  Per- 
haps they  would  have  pleased  them  had  the  Pro- 
prietors not  sent  the  bitter  with  the  sweet ;  they  in- 
structed Eastchurch  and  Miller  to  enforce  strictly 
the  Navigation  Act. 

Eastchurch  sailed  for  his  colony  by  way  of  the 
West  Indies.  There,  on  the  island  of  Nevis,  he  be- 
came enamored  of  a  lady  and,  stopping  to  pay  his 
court,  deputized  Miller  to  proceed  to  Albemarle  and 
act  as  governor  until  his  arrival.  Miller  was  re- 
ceived quietly,  but  his  honors  seemed  to  have  turned 
his  head.  Not  only  did  he  arouse  opposition  by  his 
vigor  in  enforcing  the  Navigation  Act,  but  in  other 
respects  his  conduct  was  so  outrageous  that  it 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETABY.  429 

aroused  the  indignation  of  sensible,  law-abiding 
people.  A  leader  and  an  overt  act  were  alone  needed 
to  produce  an  explosion.  Both  came  soon  enough. 
In  December,  1677,  the  Carolina,  a  heavily  armed 
schooner  commanded  by  Capt.  Zachary  Gillam,  a 
well-known  and  popular  Yankee  skipper,  arrived  in 
the  Pasquotank  River  from  London.  When  Gillam 
came  ashore  Miller  arrested  him,  arbitrarily  it  ap- 
pears, for  alleged  violations  of  the  Navigation  Act. 
Then  learning  that  George  Durant,  a  wealthy  and 
popular  planter  of  Perquimans  county  against  whom 
he  had  grievance,  was  on  board,  Miller  rushed  on 
board,  presented  cocked  pistols  at  Durant 's  breast, 
and  attempted  to  arrest  him  on  an  absurd  charge  of 
treason.  Here  was  the  overt  act;  the  leader  quickly 
appeared  in  the  person  of  John  Culpepper,  Sur- 
veyor-General. Followed  by  an  armed  mob,  Cul- 
pepper arrested  Miller  and  other  officials,  threw 
them  into  prison  and  seized  the  government.  When 
Eastchurch  appeared  and  demanded  the  govern- 
ment his  demands  were  disputed  by  the  Culpepper 
party,  and  Eastchurch  appealed  to  Virginia  for  aid. 
It  was  promised,  but  he  died  before  assistance  could 
be  given.  The  rebels  in  the  meantime  had  convened 
an  Assembly,  elected  officers,  and  for  two  years  ad- 
ministered public  affairs  "by  their  own  authority 
and  according  to  their  own  model."  They  denied 
the  authority  neither  of  the  Proprietors  nor  of  the 
King,  and  did  not  regard  their  conduct  as  rebellion. 
In  this  light,  too,  the  Lords  Proprietors  appear  to 
have  viewed  it,  for  when  Culpepper  went  to  London 
to  explain  the  situation  in  Albemarle,  they  not  only 
declined  to  punish  him,  but  when  he  was  arrested  on  a 
charge  of  treason,  Shaftesbury  successfully  defended 
Mm  on  the  ground  that  at  the  time  of  the  insurrection 
Miller  was  not  governor,  and  there  was  no  legal 
government  in  Albemarle^ 


430       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

The  next  experience  of  this  kind  which  the  people 
of  Albemarle  had  with  a  governor  was  with  one  of 
the  Lords  Proprietors.  The  Earl  of  Clarendon  had 
sold  his  share  of  Carolina  to  Seth  Sothel,  and  Sothel 
was  sent  to  Albemarle  with  the  expectation  that  the 
presence  of  a  Lord  Proprietor  would  awe  the  people 
into  order.  But,  as  John  Urmstone  observed,  in 
Albemarle  a  Lord  Proprietor  was  "no  more  re- 
garded than  a  ballad- singer. "  He  might  have 
added,  too,  that  some  of  them  were  less  worthy  of 
respect  than  ballad-singers.  Sothel  "proved  him- 
self to  be  one  of  the  dirtiest  knaves  that  ever  held 
office  in  America."  His  misrule  quickly  drove  the 
people  into  revolt.  Accusing  him  of  drunkenness, 
robbery  and  tyranny,  they  arrested  him,  tried  and 
convicted  him,  and  drove  him  from  the  province, 
declaring  him  incapable  of  holding  office  in  Albe- 
marle forever. 

Church  of  England  Established. 

The  banishment  of  Sothel  was  followed  by  a  pe- 
riod of  comparative  peace  and  order  during  which 
the  colony  grew  and  prospered.  During  this  period 
Philip  Ludwell  and  John  Archdale,  the  best  gov- 
ernors sent  to  Carolina  by  the  Lords  Proprietors, 
administered  the  affairs  of  the  colony,  at  times  in 
person,  but  generally  through  deputies.  Under 
Ludwell,  in  1691,  the  Lords  Proprietors  united  the 
office  of  governor  of  the  two  Carolinas.  Archdale, 
like  Sothel,  was  a  Lord  Proprietor,  but  was  like  him 
in  nothing  else.  A  Quaker,  he  was  especially  accept- 
able to  the  Quakers  of  Albemarle,  who,  since  the 
visits  of  Edmundson  and  Fox  in  1672,  had  grown 
strong  in  the  colony.  Under  the  encouragement  of 
Archdale  they  became  the  most  influential  religious 
body  in  North  Carolina.  The  Church  of  England, 
on  the  contrary,  was  weak;  yet,  in  1701,  Gov.  Hen- 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.    431 

derson  Walker  induced  the  Assembly  to  pass  an  act 
establishing  the  Church  of  England  as  the  state 
church,  and  providing  for  its  support  by  taxation. 
The  act  at  once  aroused  opposition,  but  it  was  qui- 
eted two  years  later  when  the  Lords  Proprietors 
disapproved  the  act  because  of  its  inadequacy. 

But  the  attempt  to  establish  a  church  caused  an 
unfortunate  division  in  the  colony  that  was  to  lead 
to  trouble  for  many  years  to  come.  Heretofore  the 
religious  scruples  of  the  Quakers  against  taking 
oaths  had  been  observed  and  their  affirmation  ac- 
cepted. But  the  recent  act  of  Parliament  prescrib- 
ing the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Queen  Anne  made  no 
such  exception  in  their  favor,  and  Gov.  Eobert 
Daniel,  who  was  appointed  in  1704,  insisted  that 
Quakers  must  take  the  oath  before  entering  upon 
any  official  duties  or  sitting  as  members  of  the  As- 
sembly. The  Quakers  refused,  and  demanded  that 
the  custom  of  the  province  be  followed.  Their  seats 
were  accordingly  refused  them,  and  the  Assembly 
thus  reduced  in  membership  immediately  passed  an 
act  establishing  the  Church  of  England  in  the  col- 
ony, and  an  act  requiring  such  an  oath  of  office  as 
no  Quaker  could  take.  Thereupon  the  Quakers 
threw  their  influence  against  Daniel  and  secured  his 
removal.  Thomas  Cary  succeeded  him,  but  Cary 
disappointed  the  Quakers,  for  he  insisted  on  follow- 
ing the  requirements  of  the  law,  and  even  went  fur- 
ther than  Daniel  had  gone.  The  Quakers  then  sent 
John  Porter  to  London  to  appeal  directly  to  the 
Lords  Proprietors.  Porter  returned  in  1707  with  an 
order  recognizing  the  affirmation  of  Quakers  in 
place  of  the  oath,  removing  Cary,  appointing  new 
deputies  and  authorizing  the  council  to  elect  a  presi- 
dent to  act  as  governor.  When  Porter  arrived  Cary 
was  absent  and  William  Glover  was  acting  as  gov- 
ernor as  president  of  the  council.  This  arrange- 


432       THE  HISTOEY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

merit  appeared  satisfactory  to  all  factions,  and 
Porter  and  the  Quakers  acquiesced  in  it.  But  when 
the  new  appointees  offered  to  qualify  as  councillors, 
Glover  would  not  admit  them  until  they  had  taken 
the  prescribed  oath.  Porter  and  his  party  there- 
upon formed  an  alliance  with  Gary,  who  had  re- 
turned, against  Glover.  But  Glover  refused  to  yield 
and  the  colony  was  brought  to  the  verge  of  civil  war. 
However,  better  counsels  prevailed  and  an  agree- 
ment was  reached  to  submit  the  rival  claims  to  an 
Assembly.  But  new  complications  then  arose.  Both 
Glover  and  Gary  issued  writs  for  the  election  of 
representatives,  and  when  the  Assembly  met  in  Oc- 
tober, 1708,  there  were  two  rival  sets  of  delegates. 
Glover  refused  to  recognize  the  legality  of  any  ac- 
tion taken  by  delegates  who  would  not  subscribe  the 
oaths  which  had  brought  on  the  trouble,  but  the 
Gary  faction  was  in  control  and  brushing  aside 
Glover 's  claims  decided  everything  in  Gary's  favor. 
Glover,  still  claiming  to  be  the  lawful  governor, 
withdrew  into  Virginia,  leaving  Gary  in  possession 
of  the  government  and  the  colony  in  confusion. 
This  condition  continued  for  nearly  two  years,  when 
the  Lords  Proprietors  again  took  a  hand.  They 
selected  Edward  Hyde,  a  relative  of  the  Queen,  as 
deputy-governor  of  North  Carolina.  Hyde  arrived 
in  Virginia  in  August,  1710.  He  expected  to  receive 
his  commission  from  Governor  Tynte  at  Charleston, 
but  just  before  his  arrival  Governor  Tynte  died,  and 
without  his  commission  Hyde  was  powerless  to  en- 
force his  authority  in  Albemarle.  Both  factions, 
however,  were  tired  of  strife  and  both  joined  in  an 
invitation  to  Hyde  to  assume  the  government  as 
president  of  the  council.  Hyde  accepted,  but  dis- 
played a  lack  of  tact  in  dealing  with  the  situation, 
and  again  the  colony  was  thrown  into  disorder. 
Gary  withdrew  his  adherence,  took  up  arms  and 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.  433 

defied  the  government.  His  party  held  Hyde's 
forces  at  bay  until  Governor  Spotswood,  of  Virginia, 
came  to  the  latter 's  assistance.  Gary  was  then  de- 
feated, captured  and  sent  to  England  to  be  tried  for 
treason.  However,  he  was  never  tried,  probably 
for  the  lack  of  evidence.  His  defeat  put  an  end  to 
the  rebellion  in  Carolina. 

North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  Separate. 

In  1710  the  Lords  Proprietors  decided  to  appoint 
Edward  Hyde  governor  of  North  Carolina  "  inde- 
pendent of  the  governor  of  South  Carolina,"  but  his 
commission  was  not  issued  until  January  24,  1712. 
He  opened  it  and  qualified  before  the  council  May  9. 
Henceforth  the  careers  of  the  two  provinces  were 
separate. 

Trouble  with  Indians. 

Worse  days  were  yet  in  store  for  North  Carolina. 
As  the  white  man  pushed  his  settlements  towards 
the  southward,  he  necessarily  drove  the  red  man 
before  him  and  seized  upon  his  hunting  ground. 
Powerless  to  stay  the  white  man's  march  the  In- 
dian retreated  in  sullen  anger,  ever  on  the  lookout 
for  a  chance  to  strike  a  blow  at  his  advancing  foe. 
The  dissensions  occasioned  by  Gary's  Rebellion 
seemed  to  one  watchful  chief  of  the  Tuscaroras, 
whom  the  white  man  called  Hancock,  to  offer  the 
desired  chance  and  he  determined  to  seize  it.  In- 
stigated by  him  500  warriors  assembled  at  his  prin- 
cipal town  on  Contentnea  Creek,  near  the  present  vil- 
lage of  Snow  Hill,  and  appointed  September  22, 1711, 
the  time  for  a  wholesale  massacre.  Everything  was 
arranged  with  such  profound  secrecy  that  the  white 
settlers  continued  to  receive  the  Indians  into  their 
cabins  without  suspicion  almost  to  the  very  morning 
of  the  outbreak,  and  slept  peacefully  through  the 
preceding  night.  The  war-whoops  of  the  savages, 

Vol.  1—28. 


434       THE  HISTOEY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA 

arousing  them  from  sleep  at  daybreak,  gave  them 
their  first  intimation  of  danger.  Painted  warriors 
poured  out  of  the  woods  on  all  sides.  "Within  two 
hours  they  butchered  130  settlers  on  the  Pamlico 
and  eighty  on  the  Neuse.  Men,  women  and  children, 
as  usual,  fell  indiscriminately  beneath  their  bloody 
tomahawks.  The  dead  lay  unburied  in  the  hot  Sep- 
tember sun,  food  for  vultures  and  wolves.  For  three 
days  the  awful  work  went  on  with  every  circum- 
stance of  horror  and  outrage.  Those  who  escaped 
fled  to  Bath  and  other  places  of  refuge,  leaving 
the  whole  southern  frontier  along  the  Pamlico 
and  the  Neuse  a  scene  of  blood  and  ashes  and  deso- 
lation. 

Fortunately,  Tom  Blunt,  a  powerful  chief  of  the 
Tuscaroras,  had  refused  to  join  in  the  conspiracy, 
and  Albemarle  county  escaped.  But  the  recent  dis- 
sensions in  the  province,  the  refusal  of  the  Quakers 
to  bear  arms,  and  the  apprehensions  of  attack  on 
the  western  frontier  of  Albemarle  made  Governor 
Hyde's  task  an  exceedingly  difficult  one.  Alone  the 
colony  could  hardly  have  sustained  itself,  and  Hyde 
appealed  to  Virginia  and  South  Carolina  for  help. 
Virginia  sent  none,  but  South  Carolina  responded 
generously.  Col.  John  Barnwell  marched  a  force  of 
white  men  and  Indians  through  300  miles  of  forests, 
struck  the  enemy  in  two  hard  battles  near  New  Bern, 
and  defeated  them.  Though  reinforced  by  a  force 
of  North  Carolinians  he  was  less  successful  in  his 
attack  on  Hancock's  fort  on  the  Contentnea.  But 
he  returned  again  to  the  attack  in  the  following 
spring.  In  the  fort,  however,  Hancock  held  a  large 
number  of  white  women  and  children  prisoners,  and 
in  order  to  save  these,  Barnwell  agreed  to  a  treaty 
of  peace,  and  soon  afterwards  returned  to  South 
Carolina.  He  was  subjected  to  severe  criticism  for 
his  course,  but  probably  none  of  it  proceeded  from 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.  435 

those  whose  wives  and  children  he  had  thus  snatched 
from  the  jaws  of  death. 

Neither  side,  however,  observed  the  treaty,  and 
before  the  summer  of  1712  was  gone  the  war  was 
renewed.  Yellow  fever  added  its  horrors  to  those 
of  war,  and  claimed  perhaps  as  many  victims. 
Among  them  was  Governor  Hyde.  Col.  Thomas 
Pollock,  a  man  of  ability  and  character,  became 
president  of  the  council,  and  during  the  sum- 
mer and  winter  pushed  the  war  vigorously.  In 
September  he  negotiated  a  treaty  with  Tom  Blunt 
by  which  the  latter  secured  a  truce  with  Han- 
cock until  the  following  January.  Before  this  truce 
expired  Col.  James  Moore  arrived  from  South  Caro- 
lina with  a  small  force  of  white  men  and  1,000  In- 
dians. Cooperating  with  President  Pollock  he 
speedily  drove  the  Indians  to  the  cover  of  their  forts, 
stormed  the  strongest,  captured  it,  and  inflicted  on 
them  a  loss  of  800  warriors.  Crushed  by  this  blow, 
the  remnant  of  the  defeated  Tuscaroras  emigrated 
to  New  York  where,  joining  their  kinsmen,  the  Iro- 
quois  of  the  Long  House,  they  changed  the  cele- 
brated Five  Nations  to  the  Six  Nations. 

Two  years  later  North  Carolina  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  return  the  kindness  of  South  Carolina.  In 
1715  the  Yemassee  Indians,  by  whose  aid  the  Tus- 
caroras had  been  defeated,  allied  all  the  tribes  from 
the  Cape  Fear  to  Florida  in  hostilities  against  the 
white  settlers.  North  Carolina  sent  Col.  Maurice 
Moore,  a  brother  of  Col.  James  Moore,  to  the  aid  of 
the  southern  colony,  and  Moore  struck  the  blow  that 
finally  crushed  the  power  of  the  Cape  Fear  Indians 
and  opened  that  section  to  white  settlers. 

Pirates. 

Three  years  later  the  Cape  Fear  was  rid  of  an- 
other pest.  The  dangerous  coast  that  repelled  legiti- 


436       ,THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

mate  traders  from  the  Cape  Fear  made  that  river  a 
favorite  resort  for  those  whose  trade  was  plunder 
and  rapine.  Behind  the  sand  bars  that  stretch 
across  the  mouth  of  the  river  hundreds  of  pirates 
rested  secure  from  interference  while  they  leisurely 
repaired  damages  and  kept  a  sharp  lookout  for  prey. 
The  period  from  1650  to  half  a  century  after  the 
departure  of  Yeamans '  colony,  John  Fiske  has  aptly 
called  "the  golden  age  of  pirates."  As  late  as  1717 
it  was  estimated  that  as  many  as  1,500  pirates  made 
headquarters  at  New  Providence  and  at  Cape  Fear. 
But  next  year  New  Providence  was  captured  and  the 
freebooters  driven  away.  "One  of  its  immediate 
results,  however,"  as  Fiske  observes,  "was  to  turn 
the  whole  remnant  of  the  scoundrels  over  to  the 
North  Carolina  coast  where  they  took  their  last 
stand."  The  names  of  Blackboard  and  Stede  Bon- 
net became  household  words  all  along  the  Carolina 
coast.  The  former  made  his  headquarters  at  Bath, 
the  latter  at  Cape  Fear,  and  their  wild  deeds  in 
those  waters  furnished  material  for  stories  that  are 
still  poured  into  the  ears  of  credulous  listeners. 
Finally,  through  the  exertions  of  Governor  Johnston, 
of  South  Carolina,  Capt.  William  Ehett  sailed  for 
the  Cape  Fear,  captured  Bonnet  after  a  desperate 
struggle,  and  carried  him  to  Charleston  where  he 
paid  the  penalty  for  his  crimes  "at  the  tail  of  a 
tow."  A  few  weeks  later  Governor  Spotswood,  of 
Virginia,  fitted  out  an  expedition  against  Black- 
beard  under  the  command  of  Lieut.  Robert  Maynard. 
Maynard  caught  the  pirate  off  Ocracoke  Inlet,  de- 
feated and  killed  him,  and  carried  his  infamous 
crew  to  Virginia  to  be  executed.  These  were  deci- 
sive blows  to  piracy  along  the  North  Carolina  coast, 
and  after  a  few  more  years  the  black  flags  of  the 
buccaneers  disappeared  from  our  seai. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.     437 
Boundary  between  North  Carolina  and  Virginia. 

After  these  victories  for  good  government  and 
civilization,  the  colony  settled  down  during  the  last 
decade  of  proprietary  rule  to  a  period  of  compara- 
tive repose.  There  were,  it  is  true,  a  few  internal 
dissensions,  occasioned,  as  such  dissensions  are  still 
occasioned,  by  the  ambitions  of  rival  politicians,  but 
they  affected  the  welfare  of  the  colony  but  little,  and 
were  small  affairs  in  comparison  with  the  great 
struggles  through  which  the  colony  had  already 
passed.  During  this  period  occurred  two  events  of 
more  than  passing  interest.  In  1728  the  long- 
standing boundary  line  dispute  with  Virginia  was 
finally  settled.  Commissioners  appointed  by  the 
two  provinces  ran  the  line,  with  great  difficulty,  skill 
and  heroism,  through  tangled  forests  and  unex- 
plored swamps.  As  they  ran  it,  so  it  remains  to  this 
day. 

Proprietary  Abolished. 

The  same  year  saw  the  rule  of  the  Lords  Propri- 
etors brought  to  a  close.  Nine  years  before  the 
people  of  South  Carolina  had  thrown  off  the  pro- 
prietary government  and  sought  admission  into  the 
class  of  Crown  colonies.  Neither  the  people  nor  the 
Proprietors  had  been  satisfied  with  the  latter 's  ex- 
periment. The  King,  too,  regretted  the  grant  which' 
had  conveyed  such  vast  possessions  and  such  ex- 
tensive political  power  to  subjects.  The  action  of 
South  Carolina,  therefore,  set  in  motion  a  train  of 
thoughts  and  negotiations  that  resulted,  in  1728,  in 
the  purchase  by  the  Crown  of  seven-eighths  of  the 
territorial  interests  of  the  Proprietors  and  the  re- 
sumption of  all  their  political  authority.  Both 
provinces  then  passed  under  the  direct  authority  of 
the  Crown  and  the  rule  of  the  Lords  Proprietors 
came  to  an  end.  In  North  Carolina  the  change  was 
celebrated  with  great  public  rejoicings. 


438       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 
Conclusion. 

The  people  had  cause  f6r  their  joy.  Neglected 
by  the  Proprietors  and  antagonized  by  the  com- 
mercial policy  of  their  powerful  northern  neighbor, 
what  those  early  Carolinians  had  obtained  they  got 
through  their  own  unassisted  exertions  and  without 
favor  from  anybody.  None  of  the  English  colonies 
had  passed  through  a  more  desperate  struggle  for 
existence.  The  geographical  position  of  North 
Carolina  was  such  as  placed  its  commerce  at  the 
mercy  of  Virginia,  and  there  was  then,  as  Saunders 
observes,  no  Federal  Constitution  to  prevent  un- 
neighborly  legislation.  The  inefficient  government 
of  the  Proprietors  was  unable  to  preserve  either 
order  or  safety  in  the  province,  and  was  just  strong 
enough  to  be  a  source  of  constant  irritation.  The 
Culpepper  Rebellion,  the  Gary  Rebellion,  the  Indian 
wars  and  the  struggle  with  piracy  severely  tested 
the  character  and  the  capabilities  of  the  people. 
Their  situation,  for  instance,  at  the  close  of  the  In- 
dian wars  was  almost  desperate.  Most  of  the  people 
have  "scarcely  corn  to  last  them  until  wheat  time, 
many  not  having  any  at  all";  "the  country  miser- 
ably reduced  by  Indian  cruelty,"  and  "the  inhabi- 
tants brought  to  so  low  an  ebb"  that  large  numbers 
fled  the  province;  "our  intestine  broils  and  conten- 
tions, to  which  all  the  misfortunes  which  have  since 
attended  us  are  owing";  "a  country  preserved 
which  everybody  that  was  but  the  least  acquainted 
with  our  circumstances  gave  over  for  lost";  these 
are  typical  expressions  with  which  the  correspond- 
ence of  the  period  abounds.  That  the  colony  sur- 
vived these  conditions  is  better  evidence  of  the 
character  and  spirit  of  the  people  than  the  sneers 
and  jibes  of  hostile  critics,  either  contemporary  or 
modern.  Had  the  greater  part  of  the  population  of 
North  Carolina,  or  even  a  considerable  minority  of 


NORTH  CAROLINA  AS  A  PROPRIETARY.     439 

it,  been  composed  of  "the  shiftless  people  who  could 
not  make  a  place  for  themselves  in  Virginia  soci- 
ety," as  William  Byrd  and  John  Fiske  would  have 
us  believe,  all  the  aristocracy  of  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina  combined  could  not  have  saved  the  colony 
from  anarchy  and  ruin.  Yet  between  the  years 
1663  and  1728  somebody  laid  here  in  North  Caro- 
lina the  foundations  of  a  great  state.  The  founda- 
tion upon  which  great  states  are  built  is  the  char- 
acter of  their  people,  and  the  "mean  whites"  of 
Virginia  are  not  now,  nor  were  they  then,  the  sort 
of  people  who  found  and  build  states.  No  colony 
composed  to  any  extent  of  such  a  people  could  have 
rallied  from  such  disasters  as  those  from  which 
North  Carolina  rallied  between  1718  and  1728. 
Those  years  were  years  of  growth  and  expansion. 
The  population  increased  threefold,  the  Cape  Fear 
was  opened  to  settlers,  new  plantations  were  cleared, 
better  methods  of  husbandry  introduced,  mills 
erected,  roads  surveyed,  ferries  established,  trade 
was  increased,  towns  were  incorporated,  better 
houses  built,  better  furniture  installed,  parishes 
created,  churches  erected,  ministers  supplied,  the 
schoolmaster  found  his  way  thither,  and  the  colony 
was  fairly  started  on  that  course  of  development 
which  brought  it,  by  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution, 
to  the  rank  of  fourth  in  population  and  importance 
among  the  thirteen  English-speaking  colonies  in 
America. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — The  great  source  and  the  only  absolutely  reliable 
source  of  information  relative  to  the  history  of  North  Carolina  is  the 
Colonial  Records  of  North  Carolina.  This  following  list  makes  no  pre- 
tence to  completeness,  and  only  a  few  titles  are  given  which  for  their 
accessibility  may  be  easily  consulted,  or  for  other  reasons  are  of  especial 
interest  or  importance. — Alderman,  E.  A. :  William  Hooper;  Ashe,  Sam- 
uel A. :  History  of  North  Carolina  (2  vols.,  in  press,  Greensboro) ;  Bassett, 
John  S.:  Constitutional  Beginnings  of  North  Carolina,  1663-1729  in 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  Series  XII.,  No.  3  (Baltimore),  The 
Writings  of  Colonel  William.  Byrd  of  Westover  in  Virginia  Esqr.  (New 


440       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

York,  1901);  Bancroft,  George:  History  of  the  United  States  (6  vols., 
New  York,  1888);  Fiske,  John:  Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbours  (2  vols., 
Boston  and  New  York,  1897);  Hawks,  Francis  L. :  History  of  North  Caro- 
lina, with  maps  and  illustrations  (2  vols.,  Fayetteville,  1857-58); 
Lawson,  John:  The  History  of  Carolina  (London,  1718);  Martin,  Francis 
X.:  History  of  North  Carolina  (2  vols.,  New  Orleans,  1829);  Moore,  John 
W.:  History  of  North  Carolina  (2  vols.,  Raleigh,  1880);  Raper,  Charles 
Lee:  North  Carolina:  A  Study  in  English  Colonial  Government  (New 
York,  1904);  Saunders,  William  L.,  and  Clark,  Walter:  The  Colonial 
Recordsof  North  Carolina  (26  vols.,  1886-1917);  Weeks,  Stephen  B.:  The 
Religious  Development  in  the  Province  of  North  Carolina  in  Johns  Hopkins 
University  Studies,  Series  X.,  Nos.  5-6  (Baltimore,  1892),  Church  and 
State  in  North  Carolina  in  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  Series  XI., 
Nos.  4-6  (Baltimore,  1893),  Libraries  and  Literature  in  North  Caro- 
lina in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  from  the  Annual  Report  of  the  American 
Historical  Association  for  1895,  pages  171-267  (Washington,  1896), 
Southern  Quakers  and  Slavery  in  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  Series 
XV.  (Baltimore,  1896);  Wheeler,  John  H.:  Historical  Sketches  of  North 
Carolina  (2  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1851);  Williamson,  Hugh:  The  History 
of  North  Carolina  (2  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1812);  Winsor,  Justin:  Narra- 
tive and  Critical  History  of  America  (8  vols.,  Boston  and  New  York,  1889); 
North  Carolina  Booklet,  published  quarterly  by  the  North  Carolina  So- 
ciety Daughters  of  the  Revolution,  Raleigh,  and  including:  Ashe, 
Samuel  A.:  Our  Own  Pirates  (Vol.  II.,  No.  2);  Bassett,  John  S.:  The 
County  of  Clarendon  (Vol.  II.,  No.  10);  Battle,  Kemp  P.:  The  Lords 
Proprietors  of  Carolina  (Vol.  IV.,  No.  1);  Cheshire,  Joseph  Blount:  First 
Settlers  in  North  Carolina,  Not  Religious  Refugees  (Vol.  V.,  No.  4);  Clark, 
Walter:  Indian  Massacre  and  Tuscarora  War,  1711-13  (Vol.  II.,  No.  3); 
Davis,  Junius:  Locke's  Fundamental  Constitutions  (Vol.  VII.,  No.  1); 
Grimes,  J.  Bryan:  Some  Notes  on  Colonial  North  Carolina,  1700-1750, 
(Vol.  V.,  No.  2);  Haywood,  Marshall  DeL.:  Governor  Charles  Eden  (Vol. 
III.,  No.  8),  John  Lawson  (Vol.  VI.,  No.  4);  Hinsdale,  Mrs.  John  W.: 
Governor  Thomas  Pollock  (Vol.  V.,  No.  4);  Holladay,  Alexander  Q.:  So- 
cial  Conditions  in  Colonial  North  Carolina  (Vol.  III.,  No.  10);  Kennedy, 
Sara  B.:  Colonial  New  Bern  (Vol.  I.,  No.  2);  Raper,  Charles  L.:  SocM 
Life  in  Colonial  North  Carolina  (Vol.  III.,  No.  5). 

E.  D.  W.  CONNOB, 

Secretary  of  North  Carolina  Historical  Commission,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 


NOETH  CAROLINA,  1729-1776.  441 


CHAPTER  II. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE, 
1729-1776. 

Condition  from  1729-1752. 

The  Proprietary  of  the  Carolinas  ended  in  1729  by 
its  purchase  by  the  Crown.  Only  Lord  Granville 
refused  to  sell  his  share.  There  were  several  rea- 
sons for  this  transfer.  The  Crown  desired  it  for 
purposes  of  defense  against  the  Spaniard  and  the 
French  on  the  south  and  southwest;  the  merchants 
of  England  preferred  to  trade  with  royal  provinces 
rather  than  with  proprietaries,  and  the  proprietors 
were  glad  to  sell,  for  their  possessions  had  not  been 
a  financial  success.  Politically  the  Proprietary  had 
produced  only  unrest  and  conflicts;  its  history  was 
one  of  collisions  and  insurrections.  As  far  as  the 
settlers  were  concerned  the  transfer  was  a  matter 
of  indifference.  They  felt  that  all  their  rights  were 
guaranteed  by  the  original  charter  under  which  they 
had  made  their  settlements,  and  that  neither  pro- 
prietors nor  king  could  interfere  with  them. 

At  the  time  of  the  transfer  there  were  about 
40,000  people  in  the  province,  including  both  white 
and  black.  They  were  settled  along  Albemarle 
Sound,  and  at  the  mouths  of  the  rivers  as  far  south 
as  New  Bern.  The  few  Indians  that  remained  in 
the  settlements  were  on  reservations.  The  people 
were  engaged  in  farming,  cultivating  corn,  wheat, 
tobacco,  peas,  rice,  indigo,  and  some  cotton.  Tar 
and  rosin  engaged  some  attention.  There  were  a 
few  saw-mills  along  the  rivers.  Hogs  and  beef  cattle 
were  driven  to  Virginia  and  sold.  Barreled  pork 
and  beef  were  shipped.  Their  trade  was  with  New 


442       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

England  and  the  West  Indies  and  Virginia.  Sugar, 
molasses  and  rum  were  imported  from  New  Eng- 
land. The  English  navigation  laws  produced  some 
smuggling.  The  people  were  a  plain  people  who 
manufactured  their  own  clothes  called  "homespun.'* 
The  transfer  to  the  Crown  produced  little  change 
in  the  form  of  government.  The  governor  was  now 
appointed  by  the  Crown  instead  of  by  the  propri- 
etors. He  was  to  hold  his  office  during  the  pleasure 
of  the  Crown.  His  salary  was  supposed  to  be  paid 
out  of  quit-rents  due  the  Crown.  His  instructions 
were  so  minute  and  voluminous  that  he  had  little 
freedom  of  action.  In  the  administration  of  affairs 
he  was  assisted  by  a  council,  secretary,  receiver- 
general  for  the  collection  of  rents  due  the  Crown, 
surveyor-general  and  attorney-general,  all  of  whom 
were  appointed  by  the  Crown. 

The  judicial  department  consisted  of  a  Supreme 
Court  composed  of  a  chief  justice  and  his  asso- 
ciates, and  the  precinct  courts  that  met  quarterly 
in  each  precinct.  In  addition  to  these  there  were 
some  minor  courts.  The  legislature  consisted  of  an 
upper  house  composed  of  members  of  the  council, 
and  a  lower  house  elected  by  the  people  of  the  pre- 
cincts. Certain  towns  were  also  given  representa- 
tion in  the  lower  house. 

At  first  there  were  only  two  counties  and  these 
were  divided  into  precincts.  These  counties  were 
Albemarle  and  Bath,  but  in  1738  these  precincts 
were  made  counties.  There  was  no  chief  town.  The 
governor  resided  at  his  own  place,  and  the  Assembly 
met  frequently  at  private  houses. 

The  first  governor  appointed  by  the  Crown  was 
George  Burrington.  He  had  been  governor  under 
the  proprietors,  but  had  been  recalled.  His  admin- 
istration was  short.  He  arrived  in  1731  and  his 
administration  terminated  in  1734.  The  settlers 


L 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1729-177.6.  443 

welcomed  Burrington,  though  his  former  adminis- 
tration had  been  turbulent.  This  good  feeling  did 
not  last  long,  for  turmoil  and  strife  soon  followed. 
Burrington  was  full  of  energy.  He  visited  every 
part  of  the  province,  explored  the  rivers  and  sounds 
and  strove  to  aid  the  province.  However,  he  was 
quarrelsome  and  knew  nothing  of  diplomacy.  From 
good  testimony  it  appears  that  he  was  vulgar,  pro- 
fane and  boisterous.  He  declared  that  the  settlers 
"always  behaved  insolently  to  the  governors.  All 
the  governors  that  were  ever  in  the  province  lived 
in  fear  of  the  people  and  dreaded  their  assemblies.** 
This  statement  is  borne  out  by  the  missionary  Urm- 
stone,  who  said  "they  respect  no  authority  that  does 
not  emanate  from  themselves.'* 

Very  wisely  Burrington  was  recalled  and  Gabriel 
Johnston  became  his  successor.  Johnston  was  a 
Scotchman  who  had  been  engaged  in  English  politics 
in  London.  He  was  different  in  temperament  from 
Burrington.  He  felt  himself  gifted  in  the  art  of 
bringing  things  to  pass  by  what  he  called  "manage- 
ment." He  had  many  opportunities  to  show  his 
skill,  for  his  administration  was  a  long  one,  extend- 
ing over  eighteen  years — till  1752.  There  were  many 
perplexing  problems  that  harassed  Johnston.  One 
was  the  collection  of  quit-rents.  Lands  were  not 
held  by  the  settlers  in  fee  simple.  Each  year  they 
were  required  to  pay  to  the  Crown  certain  rents 
called  quit-rents,  which  were  nothing  more  than  a 
tax.  The  time,  place  and  means  of  the  payment 
were  the  causes  of  bitter  trouble.  In  disgust,  Johns- 
ton wrote  that  these  people  "never  were  of  any 
service  to  the  proprietors,  and  I  fear  they  never  will 
be  to  the  king."  The  governor  devised  many 
schemes,  but  the  Assembly  under  the  management 
of  the  astute  Edward  Mosely  always  interfered 
with  his  plans.  Finally  Johnston  determined  that 


444       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

he  would  get  control  of  the  Assembly  by  a  trick  of 
his  " management."  He  called  the  Assembly  to 
meet  at  Wilmington  in  the  month  of  November. 
This  place  was  so  far  from  the  populous  Albemarle 
section  that  he  thought  few  of  the  opposition  from 
that  section  would  be  able  to  attend.  In  this  he  was 
correct,  for  not  even  a  quorum  was  present.  This 
did  not  embarrass  Johnston,  for  he  proceeded  to 
organize  the  Assembly  and  to  legislate. 

The  most  important  legislation  of  the  session  had 
to  do  with  the  Albemarle  section.  These  old  pre- 
cincts had  each  five  representatives,  while  the 
new  precincts  had  only  two.  A  law  was  enacted 
limiting  the  Albemarle  precincts  to  two  also.  They 
refused  to  abide  by  the  law,  and  elected  their  cus- 
tomary five.  The  Assembly  refused  to  seat  them, 
but  Albemarle  refused  to  send  others.  This  condi- 
tion remained  for  eight  years.  Being  unrepresented, 
Albemarle  refused  to  pay  taxes.  Inasmuch  as  the 
northern  counties  did  not  pay,  the  southern  refused 
also.  Finally  the  Crown  repealed  the  obnoxious 
legislation. 

It  was  during  Johnston's  administration  that  four 
companies  were  sent  to  join  Admiral  Vernon  in  his 
attack  on  the  Spaniards  at  New  Carthage  in  South 
America.  Also  the  coasts  were  frequently  attacked 
by  parties  from  St.  Augustine  and  by  Spaniards. 
In  these  attacks  cattle  was  slaughtered,  slaves 
stolen  and  some  persons  killed.  To  protect  the  en- 
trance to  the  Cape  Fear,  Fort  Johnston  was  erected 
at  the  mouth. 

Worn  out  with  care,  Governor  Johnston  died  in 
1752. 

Expansion  of  the  Province,  1752-1765. 

During  the  administration  of  Johnston  the  prov- 
ince began  to  grow  rapidly  toward  the  west.  Scotch- 
men began  to  arrive  as  early  as  1739,  and  to  settle 


NORTH  CAKOLINA,  1739-1776.  445 

along  the  Cape  Fear  River.  At  the  end  of  the  Johns- 
ton administration  the  population  was  estimated  at 
90,000.  Johnston  having  died  in  office,  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  president  of  the  Council,  Nathaniel 
Bice.  He  lived  only  a  few  months  when  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Matthew  Eowan,  a  prominent  merchant 
of  Bath,  who  held  the  office  till  the  arrival  of  Arthur 
Dobbs  in  1754.  Immigrants  had  already  begun  to 
pour  into  the  "back  country "  before  the  arrival  of 
Dobbs.  Many  Scotchmen  came  to  the  colony  imme- 
diately after  the  battle  of  Culloden  in  1745,  and  set- 
tled on  the  Cape  Fear;  the  Scotch-Irish  came  down 
in  great  numbers  from  Pennsylvania  and  settled 
what  is  now  the  central  portion  of  the  state ;  into  the 
same  region,  only  a  little  further  west,  came  the 
Germans — better  known  as  the  Pennsylvania  Dutch, 
and  the  Moravians  settled  in  the  northwest — called 
by  them  Wachovia.  In  addition  to  these  immigrants 
many  Englishmen  continued  to  come  into  the  prov- 
ince. This  tide  of  immigration  completely  changed 
the  character  of  the  province.  Hitherto,  it  had  been 
weak  and  feeble,  but  soon  there  were  125,000  people. 
Also,  these  immigrants  were  of  the  highest  type — 
industrious,  frugal,  religious,  intelligent.  The  fact 
that  Johnston  was  from  Scotland  and  that  Dobbs 
was  from  Ireland  was  an  inducement  to  these  people 
to  come  to  this  province.  At  this  time  North  Caro- 
lina was  developing  more  rapidly  than  any  other 
province  in  America. 

Religious  Conditions. 

In  religion  these  new  immigrants  were  mostly 
Presbyterian  and  Lutheran.  They  believed  in  edu- 
cation, and  built  their  school  houses  and  churches  in 
the  same  grove.  In  the  east  there  were  Baptists, 
Quakers  and  Episcopalians.  Numerous  Vestry  Acts 
had  been  passed  with  a  view  of  permanently  estab- 


446       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

lishing  the  Church  of  England,  but  these  acts 
amounted  to  very  little.  These  Vestry  Acts  gener- 
ally made  each  county  a  parish,  the  voters  of  each 
parish  selected  the  vestry  to  secure  a  minister  who 
was  required  to  be  acceptable  to  the  bishop  of  Lon- 
don. The  legislature  fixed  the  fees  for  the  minister 
and  provided  for  a  glebe.  In  the  eastern  counties 
where  there  were  members  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land it  was  not  difficult  to  put  these  laws  into  effect, 
but  in  the  *  *  back  counties, ' '  where  there  were  prac- 
tically only  Dissenters,  these  acts  were  of  no  avail. 
Dissenters  were  chosen  vestrymen,  and  they  failed 
to  provide  for  a  minister.  In  this  way  the  law  was 
nullified. 

The  great  missionary  society  of  England  for  the 
propagation  of  the  gospel  in  foreign  parts,  had  sent 
missionaries  to  the  province  as  early  as  1701,  but 
the  efforts  had  amounted  to  little.  Later  came  Pres- 
byterians and  Baptists  who  were  more  successful. 


Land  grants  on  easy  terms  were  secured  from  the 
Crown.  In  order  to  encourage  immigration,  certain 
London  merchants  were  given  large  grants.  McCul- 
loch  was  granted  1,200,000  acres  on  the  headwaters 
of  the  Pee  Dee  and  the  Cape  Fear.  He  was  to  di- 
vide this  into  baronies  of  12,500  acres  each.  No 
rents  were  to  be  paid  for  many  years.  These  large 
grants  caused  much  trouble  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  when  the  McCulloch  lands  were  confis- 
cated. In  1744  Lord  Granville's  lands  were  as- 
signed him.  He  was  given  the  northern  half  of  the 
province  from  the  seat  to  the  west.  It  was  from 
him  that  the  Moravians  made  their  purchase  of 
100,000  acres  and  established  their  communistic  set- 
tlement. It  was  unfortunate  for  the  Crown  and  the 
province  that  an  absentee  landlord  was  owner  of 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1729-1776.  447 

one-half  the  land.  It  caused  no  end  of  trouble.  The 
rents  went  to  him  and  not  to  the  Crown.  Many  com- 
plaints were  made  against  Granville's  agents;  they 
made  little  effort  to  bring  settlers,  and  there  was 
jealousy  between  the  Crown's  domain  and  the  Gran- 
ville  district.  The  laws  for  this  district  were  made 
by  the  legislature,  but  this  divided  rule  was  hurtful. 
Serious  riots  were  frequently  threatened  with  the 
agents,  which  the  Assembly  was  called  upon  to  set- 
tle. On  one  occasion  a  large  body  of  men  went  to  the 
home  of  Francis  Corbin,  the  agent,  and  compelled 
him  to  go  with  them  to  Enfield,  where  he  was  forced 
to  promise  reforms  under  a  "peculiar  bond."  Lord 
Granville  never  gave  up  these  lands,  but  lost  then* 
in  the  upheaval  of  the  Revolution. 

French  and  Indian  Wars. 

In  the  French  and  Indian  war  this  province  was 
quick  to  respond  to  the  call  for  help.  Under  Presi- 
dent Rowan,  before  the  arrival  of  Governor  Dobbs, 
the  Assembly  voted  an  aid  of  750  men  and  £12,000. 
The  command  was  given  to  Col.  James  Innes,  who 
had  previously  led  the  provincial  troops  against 
Spain  in  the  attack  on  New  Carthagena.  Colonel 
Innes  led  450  of  these  troops  to  Virginia  and  ar- 
rived there  just  after  the  discomfiture  of  young 
Washington  at  Great  Meadows.  The  commander  of 
the  expedition  against  the  French  was  General 
Frye.  Just  at  this  juncture  he  died,  and  Governor 
Dinwiddie  prevailed  upon  Innes  to  take  chief  com- 
mand. The  whole  expedition  had  been  poorly 
planned,  no  provision  had  been  made  for  the  support 
of  the  troops  and  the  French  outnumbered  the  Eng- 
lish. Under  these  circumstances  Colonel  Innes  sent 
the  North  Carolina  troops  to  their  homes.  He  re- 
mained at  the  head  of  a  handful  of  troops  till  the 
English  government  appointed  Governor  Sharpe  to 


448       THE  HISTOEY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

the  chief  command.  In  October,  1754,  Governor 
Dobbs  met  with  Governor  Dinwiddie  at  Winchester, 
and  made  plans  for  a  more  extensive  campaign. 
Colonel  Innes  was  prevailed  upon  to  remain  with 
the  army  as  Camp-Master-General.  When  Fort 
Cumberland  was  finished  he  was  made  governor. 
Braddock  had  now  taken  chief  command  and  in 
July,  1755,  made  his  disastrous  attack  on  the  French 
and  Indians.  Colonel  Innes  received  the  remnant 
of  his  army  into  Ft.  Cumberland.  Though  it  was 
August  his  successor  went  into  winter  quarters  in 
Philadelphia,  leaving  Innes  with  a  mere  handful  of 
men  and  the  sick  and  wounded.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances he  disbanded  his  men  and  returned  to 
North  Carolina. 

Governor  Dobbs  was  very  energetic  all  the  time 
in  support  of  the  English  government.  He  had  been 
a  member  of  the  army,  and  his  son,  Edward  Brice 
Dobbs,  was  then  a  member.  At  this  time  he  was 
visiting  his  father.  He  organized  a  company  to  go 
to  the  aid  of  General  Braddock.  In  1755  four  com- 
panies were  organized  to  go  to  the  help  of  the  Eng- 
lish in  New  York.  Governor  Dobbs  met  other  gov- 
ernors in  Philadelphia,  in  1757,  to  discuss  ways  and 
means  to  conduct  the  war.  In  the  same  year  two 
companies  were  sent  into  South  Carolina  to  aid  in 
repelling  an  attack  from  that  direction.  In  the  cam- 
paign against  Ft.  DuQuesne  three  companies  were 
sent  from  North  Carolina  under  the  command  of 
Col.  Hugh  Waddell.  He  was  probably  the  youngest 
colonel  in  the  expedition,  but  also  the  most  expert 
Indian  fighter.  He  often  dressed  as  an  Indian  and 
was  skilled  in  their  woodcraft.  This  knowledge  was 
of  great  service  to  the  commander  in  this  expedition. 

The  contribution  of  North  Carolina  to  this  war 
was  made  under  the  most  trying  difficulties.  Money 
could  be  secured  only  by  exporting  products  to  other 


NORTH  CAEOLINA,  1729-1776.  449 

colonies,  where  they  were  sold  at  a  sacrifice.  The 
English  government  voted  funds  to  reimburse  the 
colonies,  but  North  Carolina  felt  that  she  never  re- 
ceived her  share  and  blamed  Governor  Dobbs  for  it. 

While  this  war  was  waging  there  was  danger  to 
the  province  nearer  home.  The  Indians  on  the  west- 
ern frontier  were  ready  for  the  warpath.  The  Chero- 
kees  in  the  western  mountains  had  many  fighting 
men.  They  began  to  make  raids  on  the  frontier  set- 
tlers and  to  massacre  them.  So  great  was  the 
danger  that  the  Assembly  erected  a  fort  just  beyond 
Salisbury,  naming  it  Ft.  Dobbs.  Colonel  Waddell 
was  placed  in  command.  In  1756  another  fort  was 
erected  still  further  westward.  The  Moravian  set- 
tlement also  became  a  retreat  for  the  settlers.  In 
February,  1760,  the  Indians  attacked  Ft.  Dobbs  in 
great  numbers,  but  were  repulsed  by  Colonel  .Wad- 
dell.  In  1761  a  campaign  against  the  Indians  was 
planned.  Colonel  Grant,  of  the  English  army,  was 
to  march  against  them  from  the  south,  and  Colonel 
Waddell  from  the  north.  Grant  met  the  Indians 
near  the  present  town  of  Franklin  and  crushed  them 
so  that  they  sued  for  peace. 

There  were  other  troubles  that  worried  the  last 
days  of  Governor  Dobbs.  The  old  quarrel  with  the 
Assembly  continued.  Dobbs  was  anxious  to  return 
to  England,  and  so  asked  for  an  assistant  governor. 
He  died  before  sailing,  and  the  administration  of 
affairs  passed  to  the  lieutenant-governor,  William 
Tryon,  in  1765. 

William  Tryon  and  the  War  of  the  Regulation,  1765-1771. 

Tryon  was  the  most  distinguished  and  accom- 
plished of  all  the  royal  governors  ever  sent  to  the 
province.  He  was  well-born,  accomplished,  ambi- 
tious, diplomatic  and  suave  in  manners.  He  was 
the  one  governor  who  was  able  to  get  along  with  the 

To!.  1—29. 


450       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Assembly.  He  was  very  popular,  but  this  popu- 
larity lie  won  only  after  a  bitter  experience  with  the 
Assembly  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  administra- 
tion. This  trouble  arose  from  the  effort  to  enforce 
the  Stamp  Act. 

Tryon  was  told  by  Speaker  Ashe  of  the  Assembly 
that  they  would  resist  its  enforcement  to  the  death. 
Tryon  therefore  prorogued  the  Assembly.  The  peo- 
ple, however,  were  very  restless.  On  October  16 
some  500  or  600  people  assembled  in  the  town  of 
"Wilmington  and  burned  Earl  Bute  in  effigy.  The 
crowd  then  compelled  many  citizens  of  the  town  to 
come  out  to  a  bonfire  and  drink  to  "Liberty  prop- 
erty, and  no  stamp  duty  and  confusion  to  Lord 
Bute."  Dr.  Houston,  who  had  been  appointed 
stamp-master,  was  required  to  take  oath  that  he 
would  sell  no  stamps.  Mr.  Stewart,  the  printer, 
was  required  to  publish  his  paper  without  the 
stamps.  Instead  of  the  stamps  he  printed  a  skull 
and  cross-bones  with  these  words :  "here  is  the  place 
to  affix  the  stamps. ' '  The  governor,  seeing  the  dan- 
gerous trend  of  things,  called  together  a  number  of 
merchants  for  consultation  and  tried  to  persuade 
them  to  render  obedience  to  the  law,  but  they  re- 
fused firmly  to  try  to  prevail  upon  the  people  to 
accept  it. 

On  January  16  two  vessels  came  into  the  Cape 
Fear  without  the  proper  stamps.  They  were  seized 
by  an  English  war-vessel,  the  Viper.  There  was 
great  indignation  among  the  people.  The  crew,  sent 
to  Wilmington  for  supplies,  was  arrested  and 
thrown  into  prison,  and  no  supplies  were  permitted 
to  be  sent  to  the  vessel.  The  militia  of  the  county 
was  called  out,  and  under  the  commands  of  Colonels 
Ashe  and  Waddell  came  to  Brunswick,  and  threat- 
ened the  vessel.  The  commandant  of  Ft.  Johnston, 
fearing  that  they  might  seize  the  fort,  spiked  all  the 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1729-1776.  451 

guns.  These  troops  were  not  disorderly;  they  even 
visited  the  governor  and  told  him  that  no  harm  was 
intended  to  him,  but  that  the  commerce  of  the  Cape 
Fear  must  not  be  interrupted.  There  was  no  con- 
cealment in  the  conduct  of  these  men,  and  the  best 
men  of  the  province  were  the  leaders.  Tryon  was 
fearful  that  a  general  insurrection  would  ensue,  for 
the  whole  province  was  in  sympathy  with  the  con- 
duct of  these  leaders.  Happily,  at  this  juncture,  the 
news  arrived  that  the  odious  measure  would  be 
promptly  repealed.  All  disturbances  now  subsided. 
Tryon  had  learned  something  of  the  type  of  men  that 
he  had  come  to  rule,  and  in  the  future  he  guided 
himself  accordingly. 

Tryon  and  his  wife  were  fond  of  society  and  pos- 
sessed many  social  accomplishments.  When  the 
Assembly  met  they  made  friends  rapidly.  He  pre- 
vailed upon  them  to  locate  the  capital  at  New  Bern 
and  to  undertake  the  building  of  a  palace  for  the 
governor,  and  one  of  the  finest  buildings  in  America 
was  erected.  Under  Tryon  European  court  etiquette 
reached  its  highest  point  in  this  colony.  His  recep- 
tions were  full  of  forms  and  ceremonies  that  ap- 
pealed to  the  imagination  of  the  Assembly,  and  to 
the  best  people  of  the  province.  Of  course,  this  pal- 
ace created  a  debt,  but  no  word  of  complaint  was 
heard  save  from  the  "back  counties." 

One  other  very  prominent  trait  of  Tryon  was  his 
fondness  for  military  display.  He  was  never  hap- 
pier than  when  he  was  surrounded  by  a  military 
escort  and  exercising  the  pomp  of  arms.  He  felt 
that  such  display  impressed  the  imaginations  of  the 
people  with  the  power  and  strength  of  government. 
For  example,  there  was  a  demand  that  the  dividing 
line  between  the  province  and  the  Cherokee  Indians 
be  run.  Instead  of  sending  surveyors,  he  organized 
the  militia  of  Rowan  and  Mecklenburg  counties  into 


452       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

a  regular  army,  and  with  the  flare  of  trumpets  and 
the  beat  of  drums  he  marched  into  the  region, 
camped  for  a  few  days,  returned  home  and  left  the 
surveyors  to  run  the  line.  He  made  the  desired  im- 
pression on  the  Indians,  for  they  called  him  ''the 
Great  Wolf."  Then,  too,  it  helped  to  cement  the 
Tryon  party  and  to  make  him  popular  with  many 
people.  This  proved  a  heavy  expense,  but  the  As- 
sembly, unlike  the  Assembly  of  earlier  days,  had 
no  complaint  to  make. 

Regulators. 

The  most  important  and  most  dramatic  event  in 
the  colonial  history  of  the  province  was  the  Regu- 
lator movement.  The  most  notable  outbreak  oc- 
curred in  Orange  county,  though  the  sympathizers 
with  the  Regulator  complaints  were  found  in  various 
sections.  The  movement  was  the  outcome  of  condi- 
tions social,  political,  economic  and,  some  have 
thought,  religious.  The  social  life  of  the  new  west, 
or  "back  counties,'*  was  different  from  the  old  east. 
These  new  settlers  were  farmers;  they  had  little 
intercourse  with  the  east,  and  they  were  too  far 
from  the  sea  to  engage  in  trade.  They  had  little 
money,  which  was  always  a  defect  in  the  economic 
life  of  the  province.  They  had  an  abundance  of 
produce,  but  they  could  not  obtain  money  for  it.  In 
religion  they  were  dissenters.  Their  ministers  were 
strong  leaders.  In  fact  the  settlements  were  made 
in  small  groups,  and  each  group  had  its  leader,  who 
was  frequently  the  minister.  The  system  of  local 
government  did  not  tend  to  bind  them  to  the  east. 
The  county  officers  received  their  appointment  from 
the  governor.  There  was  centralization  in  govern- 
ment, but  decentralization  in  everything  else.  It 
was  out  of  conditions  like  these  that  complaints  be- 
gan to  be  made  as  early  as  1765  against  the  county 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1729-1776.  463 

officials.  The  first  formal  complaint  was  made  on 
June  6,  1765,  in  the  famous  Nutbush  paper  of  Gran- 
ville  county.  This  paper  set  forth  some  of  the 
grievances  under  which  the  people  claimed  to  labor. 
This  brief  paper  complained  of  the  illegal  exactions 
of  lawyers  and  clerks,  and  declared  that  "few  of 
you  have  not  felt  the  weight  of  these  iron  fists." 
Similar  but  fuller  complaints  were  made  in  Orange 
and  Anson  in  1766.  Protests  were  sent  to  the  As- 
sembly, but  there  was  no  redress  of  grievances. 
That  these  grievances  were  real,  and  not  imaginary, 
no  one  denies.  Feeling  grew  so  intense  that  the 
Orange  Eegulators  in  March,  1768,  declared  that 
they  would  pay  no  more  taxes  "till  there  is  a  settle- 
ment to  our  satisfaction. ' '  The  mild  protests  of  1766 
and  1767  had  gone  unheeded,  and  so  now  the  era  of 
threats  and  force  began.  The  sheriff  of  Orange 
was  warned  that  any  effort  to  collect  tax  would  be  at 
his  peril.  He  did  not  heed  this  warning  but  seized 
a  mare,  bridle  and  saddle  for  taxes.  A  number  of 
indignant  Regulators  proceeded  to  Hillsboro,  rescued 
the  property  and  fired  into  the  house  of  Edmund 
Fanning,  whom  they  regarded  as  responsible  for  the 
failure  to  heed  their  grievances.  For  this  offense 
two  men,  Herman  Husbands  and  William  Butler, 
were  arrested  on  April  30.  On  May  3,  700  Eegu- 
lators went  to  Hillsboro  to  secure  their  release,  but 
found  that  they  were  already  released  on  bail.  In 
July  Governor  Tryon  came  in  person  to  Hillsboro, 
and  returned  in  September,  bringing  troops  from 
Rowan,  Orange  and  Granville  to  protect  the  court 
that  was  to  be  in  session.  Here  was  another  ex- 
ample of  Tryon 's  fondness  for  display,  though  it 
cost  the  province  £20,000.  When  the  court  met  a 
great  band  of  Regulators  numbering,  it  was  esti- 
mated, 3,700  came  near  the  town,  and  sent  to  inform 
the  governor  that  they  wished  to  lay  aside  all  illegal 


454      THE  HISTOEY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

methods  of  settling  their  grievances.  Tryon  took 
no  notice  of  their  request,  and  so  the  Regulators 
returned  to  their  homes.  Things  now  remained 
quiet  for  a  time.  A  new  Assembly  had  been  called 
and  many  new  men  had  been  elected.  The  Regu- 
lators were  hoping  to  obtain  a  favorable  hearing 
from  them,  but  were  doomed  to  disappointment. 
Other  things  also  happened  to  irritate  the  Regu- 
lators. "When  the  Hillsboro  court  met  in  September, 
1770,  a  band  of  Regulators  came  to  town,  entered 
the  court-house,  intimidated  the  judge  till  he  fled, 
whipped  some  lawyers,  assaulted  Fanning  and  per- 
mitted him  to  go  on  condition  that  "he  take  the  road 
and  continue  running  until  he  should  get  out  of  their 
sight."  Then  they  took  possession  of  the  court- 
house and  proceeded  to  hold  a  mock  court,  entering 
all  kinds  of  ridiculous  verdicts  on  the  record.  Their 
whole  conduct  smacks  of  the  rude  horseplay  common 
to  American  frontier  life. 

Governor  Tryon  now  began  to  contemplate  the  use 
of  force.  The  judges,  attorney-general  and  Council 
advised  this  course.  The  Assembly  was  now  called 
and  proceeded  to  pass  the  Johnson  Bill,  better 
known  as  the  Bloody  Act,  which  made  rioting  trea- 
son. Husbands,  a  leader  among  the  Regulators,  was 
a  member  of  this  Assembly.  He  was  expelled  but 
was  arrested  at  once,  and  was  to  be  tried  in  New 
Bern.  Only  the  failure  of  the  grand  jury  to  return 
a  true  bill  prevented  the  Regulators  from  march- 
ing a  large  body  to  New  Bern  to  release  him 
by  force. 

Governor  Tryon,  in  the  meantime,  placed  the  town 
under  military  control,  and  had  the  militia  held  in 
readiness  all  along  the  expected  line  of  march. 

In  April  Tryon,  having  completed  his  prepara- 
tion, began  to  collect  his  troops  and  to  move  into 
the  "back  counties."  He  assembled  about  1,200 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1729-1776.  455 

troops,  collected  mostly  from  the  eastern  and  south- 
eastern counties,  the  Albemarle  section,  however, 
refusing  to  send  troops.  Tryon  took  personal  com- 
mand of  this  division.  The  brilliant  Hugh  Waddell 
was  sent  to  raise  an  army  in  the  counties  of  Meck- 
lenburg, Anson  and  Rowan.  In  this  region  Waddell 
was  well  known  and  beloved  as  the  defender  of  Ft. 
Dobbs.  He  assembled  his  troops  but  failed  to  march 
further  than  the  Yadkin  Eiver,  near  Salisbury. 
Here  he  found  himself  surrounded  by  so  many  Regu- 
lator sympathizers  that  he  called  a  council  of  war, 
and  it  was  decided  not  safe  to  proceed  any  further. 
Then,  too,  his  powder  wagons  had  been  surprised 
while  in  camp  in  what  is  now  Cabarrus  county,  and 
destroyed  by  masked  men. 

Tryon,  in  the  meantime,  marched  to  Hillsboro,  and 
on  May  16  came  face  to  face  with  a  large  band  of 
Regulators  and  their  friends  on  Alamance  Creek,  a 
few  miles  beyond  Hillsboro.  Great  numbers  of  these 
people  had  not  come  up  for  a  battle  and  were  un- 
armed. When  the  battle  began  most  of  them  fled. 
Of  this  battle  Tryon  says:  "The  loss  of  our  army 
in  killed  and  wounded  and  missing  amount  to  about 
sixty.  The  action  lasted  two  hours,  but  after  about 
half  an  hour  the  enemy  took  to  tree-fighting,  and 
much  annoyed  our  men  who  stood  at  the  guns."  The 
loss  in  killed  and  wounded  among  the  Regulators  is 
not  definitely  known.  It  has  been  variously  esti- 
mated from  twelve  to  two  hundred. 

Immediately  after  the  battle  one  person,  Few,  was 
hanged.  He  was  said  to  have  been  half  demented. 
The  victorious  army  then  marched  to  Sandy  Creek 
Baptist  church  and  destroyed  the  property  of  the 
Regulators,  especially  the  farm  of  Herman  Hus- 
bands, where  one  of  the  army  wrote  that  they  "found 
fifty  acres  of  the  finest  wheat."  Thence  the  army 
moved  further  west  to  make  a  junction  with  Wad- 


456       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

dell.  They  met  near  the  Moravian  settlement. 
After  a  few  days  Tryon  sent  Waddell  back  into 
Rowan  and  Mecklenburg  to  quiet  any  defection  in 
those  parts.  Tryon  himself,  with  the  main  body, 
returned  to  Hillsboro,  where  a  number  of  prisoners 
were  put  on  trial  for  their  lives  for  high  treason. 
Twelve  were  pronounced  worthy  of  death,  and  six 
of  them  immediately  executed  in  the  presence  of  the 
governor  and  surrounded  by  his  troops.  Tryon  then 
announced  to  his  army  that  his  work  in  North  Caro- 
lina was  ended.  Before  the  battle  he  had  been  noti- 
fied of  his  appointment  to  the  governorship  of  New 
York.  He  proceeded  to  New  Bern  and  left  the 
army  to  be  disbanded  by  Colonel  Ashe.  Among 
those  executed  at  Hillsboro  was  James  Pugh.  He 
received  permission  from  the  governor  to  speak  at 
the  gallows.  In  his  speech  he  "refused  to  make  any 
acknowledgments  for  what  he  had  done,  that  his 
blood  would  be  as  seed  sown  in  good  ground,  which 
would  produce  a  hundredfold." 

The  battle  of  Alamance  effectually  ended  the 
Regulator  troubles.  These  people  had  real  griev- 
ances, but  they  attempted  to  remedy  them  in  an 
unlawful  manner.  For  this  they  must  not  be  judged 
too  harshly,  for  they  were  frontiersmen,  and  fron- 
tiersmen are  not  accustomed  to  look  to  the  govern- 
ment for  much  protection. 

Governor  Tryon  did  not  use  all  the  means  in  his 
power  to  pacify  these  people.  He  was  needlessly 
harsh  in  his  treatment  of  them,  and  drove  them 
from  their  homes.  Morgan  Edwards  made  a  tour 
through  this  section  one  year  after  the  battle  and 
wrote  that  "it  is  said  1,500  families  departed  since 
the  battle  of  Alamance,  and  to  my  knowledge  a  great 
many  more  are  only  waiting  to  dispose  of  their 
plantations  in  order  to  follow  them." 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1729-1776.  457 

The  End  of  the  Provincial  Period. 

Gov.  Josiah  Martin,  the  last  of  the  royal  govern- 
ors, took  up  the  unfinished  tasks  of  Governor  Tryon. 
He  tried  to  make  friends  with  the  Regulators,  but 
it  was  too  late,  for  great  numbers  of  them  had  de- 
termined to  go  to  the  more  western  counties,  and 
they  did.  Unlike  Tryon,  Martin  was  not  able  to 
make  friends  with  the  leaders  of  the  Assembly,  and 
so  the  old  clash  between  the  governor  and  the  As- 
sembly returned.  The  debts  of  the  province  had 
greatly  increased.  Money  was  not  to  be  had  in  suf- 
ficient quantity  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  trade,  and 
politically,  the  province  was  divided.  However,  the 
province  had  continued  to  prosper.  Sawmills  had 
been  erected  and  iron  furnaces  had  been  started. 
In  the  ''back  counties"  there  were  some  good  farms. 
Population  was  steadily  increasing,  though  the  dis- 
turbances had  checked  its  rapid  growth.  In  1766 
Tryon  said  that  a  thousand  immigrant  wagons 
passed  through  the  town  of  Salisbury. 

In  character,  Martin  was  very  different  from 
Tryon.  He  possessed  none  of  the  latter 's  fascina- 
tion and  diplomacy,  but  had  an  exalted  idea  of  the 
royal  prerogatives.  Among  the  more  influential  of 
the  people  he  never  made  an  intimate  friend^Three 
local  troubles  arose  to  embarrass  and  to  harass  him. 
The  boundary  line  between  North  and  South  Caro- 
lina had  not  been  completed  beyond  the  Catawba 
River.  Martin's  royal  instructions  for  continuing 
it  were  such  that  the  province  felt  that  it  was  being 
deprived  of  territory  that  rightfully  belonged  to  it. 
Over  this  he  and  the  Assembly  had  a  prolonged 
quarrel.  Also,  certain  special  taxes  the  people 
thought  should  be  abolished,  that  enough  had  been 
collected  to  meet  the  purpose  for  which  it  had  been 
levied.  But  the  most  exasperating  problem  was  the 
enactment  of  a  judicial  system,  or  Court  Law.  The 


458       THE  HISTOEY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

act  creating  a  judiciary  was  limited  in  time.  This 
time  was  now  expired,  and  Governor  Martin  could 
never  prevail  upon  the  Assembly  to  pass  a  new  act 
conformable  to  his  instructions.  The  result  was  that 
the  province  was  left  practically  without  courts  of 
law.  This  was  the  first  feature  of  the  royal  govern- 
ment to  fail.  These  three  local  cases  were  sufficient 
to  have  prepared  North  Carolina  for  the  more  im- 
portant movement  impending. 

In  1773  the  Assembly  began  to  take  notice  of  Eng- 
lish colonial  legislation  by  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  to  keep  it  informed  on  such  matters,  and 
1774  found  North  Carolina  in  full  and  free  corre- 
spondence with  the  other  colonies.  The  colonies  had 
resolved  to  bring  about  concert  of  action  through  a 
continental  congress.  Governor  Martin  determined 
that  his  province  should  send  no  delegate,  that  he 
would  call  no  assembly  as  Tryon  had  done  in  regard 
to  the  Stamp  Act  Congress  of  Albany.  Col.  John 
Harvey,  the  speaker  of  the  Assembly,  heard  of  this 
intention,  and  declared  that  "then  the  people  will 
convene  one  themselves."  Harvey's  suggestion  was 
carried  out  and  the  first  Provincial  Congress  met 
at  New  Bern  on  Aug.  25,  1774.  Governor  Martin 
issued  a  proclamation  forbidding  such  a  meeting, 
but  it  was  unheeded.  Though  the  notice  was  short, 
most  of  the  influential  members  of  the  Assembly 
were  present.  Twenty-nine  of  the  thirty-five  coun- 
ties were  represented  by  seventy  delegates.  This 
congress  denounced  English  legislation — especially 
the  tax  on  tea,  declared  that  the  cause  of  Boston 
was  the  cause  of  all,  and  called  for  a  continental  con- 
gress and  also  appointed  committees  of  safety  in 
each  county  to  see  that  such  agreements  as  might 
be  made  at  such  a  congress  be  enforced. 

Governor  Martin  called  for  a  new  Assembly  to 
meet  at  New  Bern  in  April,  1775.  Colonel  Harvey 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  17294776.  459 

called  another  provincial  congress  to  meet  at  the 
same  time  and  place.  Governor  Martin  fulminated 
and  proclaimed  against  this  meeting  also,  but  it  was 
of  no  avail.  Both  the  Assembly  and  the  Congress 
met  at  the  same  time  and  place,  and  were  composed 
largely  of  the  same  men.  Colonel  Harvey  was 
elected  speaker  of  the  Assembly  and  also  moderator 
of  the  Congress.  On  motion,  the  Assembly  would 
transform  itself  into  the  Congress  and  vice  versa. 
In  reality  the  bodies  were  but  one,  though  different 
records  were  kept.  One,  however,  was  legal,  while 
the  other  was  revolutionary.  After  a  few  days  Gov- 
ernor Martin,  in  disgust,  dismissed  the  Assembly. 
The  Congress  had  adjourned  the  previous  day. 
Soon  after  the  adjournment  came  the  news  of  the 
fight  at  Lexington.  The  news  created  excitement 
and  indignation,  and  on  May  20,  1775,  was  passed 
the  famous  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, or,  at  least,  the  Mecklenburg  Resolves  of 
May  31. 

Governor  Martin  was  now  ill  at  ease.  His  every 
action  was  watched  by  the  New  Bern  Committee  of 
Safety.  He  began  to  feel  that  his  palace  was  only 
a  prison.  He  sent  his  family  to  New  York  and  him- 
self went  to  Ft.  Johnston  on  the  Cape  Fear,  or  as 
he  expressed  it, ' '  sought  safety  under  the  protecting 
guns  of  the  British  sloop-of-war  lying  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Cape  Fear. ' '  However,  he  had  been  in  no  per- 
sonal danger,  no  threat  had  been  made  against  him, 
and  he  could  have  remained  in  perfect  safety  in  the 
palace,  fully  protected  by  his  sheer  helplessness. 
Thus  ended  Martin's  four  years  of  rule,  and  with 
his  flight  from  the  palace  practically  ended  English 
rule  in  the  province. 

In  August  the  third  Provincial  Congress  met — 
not  in  the  east,  but  in  the  west — at  Hillsboro.  This 
body  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  mem- 


460       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

bers.  It  promptly  declared  that  since  the  governor 
had  "abdicated"  it  was  necessary  to  create  some 
form  of  temporary  government.  They  proceeded  to 
enlarge  the  committee  system.  There  were  created 
committees  for  each  county,  each  judicial  district, 
and  a  central  committee  for  the  whole  province. 
The  affairs  of  the  province  now  passed  into  the 
hands  of  these  popular  bodies,  and  no  semblance  of 
royal  authority  remained.  This  Congress  also  put 
the  province  in  military  readiness  to  meet  any 
emergencies.  The  militia  was  organized  into  six 
battalions,  and  two  regiments  of  500  men  each  were 
organized  for  the  Continental  Line.  Aid  was 
promptly  sent  to  Virginia,  to  South  Carolina  and 
against  the  western  Indians. 

This  military  preparation  was  none  too  soon,  for 
the  English  were  making  ready  for  a  campaign 
against  North  Carolina.  A  fleet  was  to  come  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear  and  make  a  junction  with 
the  loyalist  forces  that  were  to  march  down  from 
the  interior.  In  January,  1776,  the  loyalists  began  to 
assemble  at  Cross  Creek,  the  centre  of  the  great 
Scotch  settlement.  The  object  of  the  loyalists  was 
to  make  the  junction  with  the  fleet  by  marching  down 
the  river.  The  provincial  militia  was  collected  at 
once  under  Caswell,  Moore  and  others.  An  active 
campaign  of  a  month  began  now.  The  provincials 
placed  themselves  across  the  line  of  march.  After 
much  marching  and  counter  marching  the  two 
forces  met,  Feb.  27,  1776,  at  Moore's  Creek  Bridge, 
only  a  few  miles  from  Wilmington.  The  battle  was 
short,  but  fierce  and  decisive.  The  Scotch  loyal- 
ists, or  Tories,  were  completely  defeated.  In  the 
engagement  about  a  thousand  provincials  took 
part,  though  six  thousand  had  been  engaged 
in  the  manoeuvres.  The  Scotch  loyalists  num- 
bered between  two  and  three  thousand.  The  failure 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1729-1776.  461 

of  this  uprising  completely  frustrated  the  plans  of 
the  fleet,  which  came,  looked  into  the  Cape  Fear,  took 
Governor  Martin  on  board  and  sailed  further  south. 
Soon  after  the  battle  the  fourth  Provincial  Con- 
gress met  at  Halifax  in  April.  The  formation  of  a 
constitution  and  a  permanent  form  of  government 
was  discussed,  but  was  wisely  postponed.  The  peo- 
ple of  the  province  were  now  ripe  for  independence. 
As  early  as  April,  1774,  "William  Hooper  had  de- 
clared that  the  American  colonies  "were  striding 
fast  to  independence."  On  April  12  this  fourth  Pro- 
vincial Congress  instructed  its  delegates  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress — Hooper,  Penn  and  Hewes — to 
vote  for  independence,  complete  separation  from 
England.  This  matter  was  brought  up  in  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  and  the  wisdom  of  immediate 
action  was  discussed  from  day  to  day.  Many  patri- 
ots doubted  the  wisdom  of  immediate  declaration. 
John  Adams  tells  how  Joseph  Hewes  determined  the 
matter:  "One  day  while  a  member  was  producing 
documents  to  show  that  the  general  opinion  of  all 
the  colonies  was  for  independence,  among  them 
North  Carolina,  Hewes,  who  had  hitherto  con- 
stantly voted  against  it,  started  suddenly  upright, 
and  lifting  both  hands  to  heaven,  cried  out,  'It  is 
done  and  I  will  abide  by  it.  '  I  would  give  more  for 
a  perfect  picture  of  the  terror  and  horror  upon  the 
face  of  the  old  majority  at  that  critical  moment  than 
for  the  best  piece  of  Raphael."  To  Jefferson,  Adams 
wrote  in  1819:  "You  know  the  unanimity  of  the 
states  finally  depended  on  the  vote  of  Joseph  Hewes, 
and  was  finally  determined  by  him ;  yet  history  is  to 
ascribe  the  American  Revolution  to  Thomas  Paine !" 
Thus  ended  the  royal  province  of  North  Carolina, 
and  the  old  dispensation  gave  way  to  the  new. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Ashe:  Biographical  History  of  North  Carolina;  Bas- 
•ett:  Regulators  of  North  Carolina;  Caruthere:  Life  of  Caldwett  (1842); 


462       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Foote:  Sketches  of  North  Carolina  (1846);  Graham:  The  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  of  Independence;  Hoyt:  The  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence; Haywood:  William  Tryon;  Jones:  A  Defense  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary History  of  North  Carolina  (1834);  Martin:  History  of  North  Caro- 
lina to  1776  (2  vols.,  1829);  McRee:  Life  and  Correspondence  of  James 
Iredett  (2  vols.,  1857);  Raper:  North  Carolina:  A  Study  in  English 
Colonial  History;  Sikes:  Transition  from  Colony  to  Commonwealth  (1898); 
Weeks:  The  Religious  Development  of  the  Province  of  North  Carolina 
(1892),  Church  and  State  in  North  Carolina  (1893);  Williamson:  History 
of  North  Carolina  (2  vols.,  1812);  Colonial  Records  of  North  Carolina 
(Vols.  III.-X.,  inclusive,  1886-1890);  Waddell:  A  Colonial  Officer  and 
Hit  Timet  (1890). 

ENOCH  WALTER  SIKES, 

Professor  of  Political  Science,  Wake  Forest  College. 


CHAPTER  III. 
NOETH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861. 

The  Revolutionary  conflict  in  North  Carolina  has 
three  characteristics:  the  local  conditions  which 
opened  the  way  for  permanent  separation  from  the 
mother  country,  the  zealous  activity  of  the  patriot 
party,  and  the  strength  of  the  loyalists.  These 
factors  were  so  pronounced  as  to  give  North  Caro- 
lina an  unique  place  in  the  history  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  around  them  may  be  grouped  all  the  es- 
sential incidents  in  the  struggle  for  independence. 

Governor  Martin's  Administration. 

In  1771  Josiah  Martin,  last  colonial  governor,  be- 
gan his  administration.  He  was  a  plain,  blunt,  out- 
spoken man,  in  sympathy  with  the  oppressed,  but 
his  lack  of  tact  and  his  military  training  unfitted 
him  for  mastery  in  the  long- standing  conflict  be- 
tween the  Executive  and  colonial  Assembly.  Indeed 
three  grave  problems  demanded  immediate  settle- 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  463 

ment,  and  in  trying  to  force  a  solution,  Governor 
Martin  lost  control  of  the  government  and  left  the 
colony  to  its  fate. 

First  of  these  was  the  question  of  finance.  A 
special  tax  on  polls  and  liquors  had  been  levied  for 
some  time  to  meet  certain  emissions  of  paper  cur- 
rency. In  1771  the  Assembly,  learning  that  the 
paper  had  been  liquidated,  enacted  a  bill  to  stop  the 
collection  of  the  tax;  the  governor  disallowed  the 
bill  and  prorogued  the  Assembly;  the  controversy 
continued,  culminating  in  the  critical  year  1774  when 
the  Assembly,  defying  the  governor,  ordered  the 
revenue  officials  not  to  levy  the  tax. 

A  second  cause  of  controversy  was  the  South 
Carolina  boundary.  In  accordance  with  royal  in- 
structions Martin  asked  the  Assembly  for  an  ap- 
propriation to  complete  the  boundary,  the  line  to 
run  in  a  northwest  direction  from  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Catawba  River,  but  the  North  Carolinians 
desired  the  line  to  run  directly  west,  and  thus  save 
a  large  amount  of  land  for  settlement.  The  Assem- 
bly therefore  refused  to  make  the  appropriation 
called  for,  and  when  the  governor  established  the 
line  through  an  arbitrary  commission,  the  Assembly, 
in  1775,  refused  to  grant  any  money  for  payment. 

More  serious  yet  was  the  controversy  over  the 
court  system.  The  laws  establishing  courts  in  the 
colony  were  made  by  the  Assembly  and  were  tempo- 
rary, being  renewed  from  time  to  time.  The  last 
law  of  1768  was  unusually  effective;  it  introduced 
a  foreign  attachment  clause,  by  which  the  property 
of  foreigners  and  non-residents  might  be  seized  in 
payment  of  debts.  Now  Martin's  instructions  for- 
bade the  reenactment  of  this  attachment  provision 
without  a  clause  referring  its  enforcement  to  the 
approval  of  the  Crown.  But  the  Assembly,  in  fram- 
ing a  new  court  law  in  1773,  insisted  on  the  attach- 


464       THE  HISTOKY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

ment  without  a  modifying  clause.  The  Governor 
attempted  to  enforce  his  instructions.  The  result 
was  a  deadlock;  the  law  of  1768  expired  before  a 
new  one  had  been  framed,  and  from  1773  to  1776 
the  colony  was  without  a  system  of  courts  (except 
magistrates). 

These  controversies,  revealing  Governor  Martin's 
inefficiency,  opened  the  way  for  the  Eevolutionary 
movement.  Sympathy  with  the  grievances  of  other 
colonies  had  long  been  felt.  Governor  Tryon  had 
prevented  radical  action  during  the  Stamp  Act  ex- 
citement by  refusing  to  call  the  Assembly;  but  in 
1773  a  committee  of  correspondence  was  formed,  its 
principal  members  being  John  Harvey,  Robert 
Howe,  Cornelius  Harnett,  William  Hooper,  Richard 
Caswell,  Joseph  Hewes  and  Samuel  Johnston.  Early 
in  1774  the  people  of  Wilmington  and  New  Bern  col- 
lected provisions  to  aid  Boston,  and  in  October  of 
that  year  the  ladies  of  Edenton,  at  a  tea  party, 
agreed  not  to  drink  tea  or  use  goods  brought  from 
England.  In  order  to  prevent  delegates  being  sent 
to  the  Continental  Congress,  Governor  Martin  de- 
cided not  to  convene  the  Assembly  of  1774  until  au- 
tumn. Learning  of  this,  John  Harvey  and  a  few 
other  patriots  determined  to  take  matters  into 
their  own  hands.  They  held  a  meeting  in  Wilming- 
ton, and  following  its  recommendation  thirty  coun- 
ties sent  delegates  to  the  First  Provincial  Congress 
of  North  Carolina,  which  met  at  New  Bern  on  Aug. 
25,  1774.  Three  delegates  to  the  Continental  Con- 
gress were  chosen — William  Hooper,  Joseph  Hewes 
and  Richard  Caswell.  Resolutions  were  adopted  as- 
serting the  right  of  self-taxation,  denouncing  the 
British  policy  toward  Massachusetts,  and  providing 
for  non-intercourse  with  Great  Britain.  Also,  in  ac- 
cord with  the  advice  of  the  Congress,  the  freeholders 
of  the  several  counties  met  and  elected  County  Com- 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  465 

mittees  of  Safety.  Thus  was  formed  an  effective 
Revolutionary  organization,  which  fixed  prices,  en- 
forced non-intercourse,  collected  subscriptions,  regu- 
lated the  conduct  of  individuals,  stirred  the  fire  of 
protest  and  revolt  and  became  the  foundation  of  the 
Revolutionary  movement. 

Provincial  Congress. 

The  next  step  in  the  Revolution  was  the  meeting 
of  the  second  Provincial  Congress  at  New  Bern, 
April,  1775.  It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  bodies 
that  ever  met  in  North  Carolina.  Governor  Martin 
had  called  a  meeting  of  the  Assembly  for  April  4; 
Harvey  called  the  Congress  for  April  3;  sixty-one 
of  the  sixty-eight  members  of  the  Assembly  were  also 
delegates  to  the  Congress;  John  Harvey,  speaker 
of  the  Assembly,  was  also  president  of  the  Congress. 
Often  the  Provincial  Congress  would  be  in  session 
when  the  governor's  secretary  would  be  announced, 
and  then  Proteus-like,  the  Congress  would  change 
itself  into  the  legislative  Assembly  and  proceed  to 
despatch  public  business.  Governor  Martin  was 
embarrassed;  he  issued  a  proclamation  against  the 
Congress  and  ordered  the  Assembly  to  oppose  the 
illegal  gathering,  but  the  Assembly  replied  by  en- 
dorsing both  provincial  and  continental  congresses 
and  arraigning  the  British  Parliament.  After  four 
days'  session  the  governor  dissolved  the  Assembly; 
the  members  remained  as  delegates  to  the  Congress, 
which  now  adopted  the  Association  of  the  Conti- 
nental Congress,  reappointed  delegates  and  asserted 
the  right  of  petition. 

Governor  Martin,  feeling  that  the  tide  was  against 
him,  collected  a  few  cannon  at  the  palace  and  opened 
negotiations  with  the  Scotch  at  the  upper  Cape  Fear 
and  with  General  Gage.  Vigilant  eyes  were  upon 
him,  and  sometime  in  April,  the  Committee  of  New 

«**  i—eo 


7 


466       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Bern  carried  off  the  cannon;  the  next  month  the 
Governor  left  New  Bern  for  Fort  Johnston  on  the 
Cape  Fear,  and  when  the  people  of  Wilmington,  led 
by  James  Moore  and  John  Ashe,  seized  the  fort  in 
July,  they  found  that  he  had  deserted  it  for  a  Brit- 
ish man-of-war.  Koyal  rule  in  North  Carolina  was 
really  at  an  end;  the  Executive  had  left  the  seat  of 
government  for  the  protection  of  the  British  flag. 

An  Independent  State. 

In  the  meantime  the  local  committees  of  safety  in 
other  parts  of  the  colony  were  active.  News  of  the 
battle  of  Lexington  stimulated  the  revolutionary 
spirit.  In  two  counties  the  sentiment  voiced  by  the 
committees  was  radical,  equal  if  not  beyond  that  so 
far  expressed  in  the  whole  country.  On  May  31  the 
Mecklenburg  Committee  at  Charlotte  adopted  reso- 
lutions that,  since  the  American  colonies  have  been 
declared  in  a  state  of  rebellion,  the  constitution  of 
each  colony  is  suspended,  and  that  the  provincial 
congresses  under  the  Continental  Congress  have  all 
executive,  legislative  and  judicial  power,  and  that 
the  people  of  Mecklenburg  county  should  fashion 
a  form  of  government  to  last  in  full  force  and  virtue 
until  instructions  from  the  provincial  congress  regu- 
lating the  jurisprudence  of  the  province  shall  pro- 
vide otherwise,  or  the  legislative  body  of  Great 
Britain  resign  its  unjust  and  arbitrary  pretentious 
with  respect  to  America.  By  declaring  British  au- 
thority suspended,  the  Mecklenburg  Resolves  took  a 
very  advanced  step  toward  independence ;  moreover 
this  attempt  at  a  new  form  of  local  government  was 
undertaken  several  days  before  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress of  Massachusetts  sought  advice  of  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  about  a  new  government  for  that 
colony,  and  several  months  before  Congress  advised 
New  Hampshire,  South  Carolina  and  Virginia  to 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  467 

form  governments  of  their  own ;  indeed  at  this  time 
the  Olive  Branch  Petition  was  being  proposed  and 
the  North  Carolina  delegates  in  Congress  therefore 
sent  back  advice  to  be  a  little  more  patient  until 
Congress  should  take  measures  thought  best,  and  the 
resolves  were  not  printed  in  Philadelphia  news- 
papers. These  resolves  of  May  31  should  not  be  con- 
fused with  those  of  May  20,  the  so-called  Mecklen- 
burg Declaration  of  Independence.  Another  set  of 
resolutions,  adopted  in  New  Hanover  and  Cumber- 
land counties,  declared  that  "We  do  unite  ourselves 
under  every  tie  of  religion  and  honor,  and  associate 
ourselves  as  a  band  in  her  defense  against  every 
foe,  hereby  solemnly  engaging  that  whenever  our 
continental  or  provincial  counsel  shall  decree  it  nec- 
essary, we  will  go  forth  and  be  ready  to  sacrifice 
our  lives  and  fortunes  to  secure  her  freedom  and 
safety." 

This  revolutionary  propaganda  was  soon  followed 
by  military  preparations  and  armed  conflict.  The 
third  provincial  congress  which  met  at  Hillsboro  in 
August,  1775,  established  a  provincial  council,  a 
temporary  central  organ  to  guard  a  colony  deserted 
by  its  legal  governor,  instituted  a  military  system 
and  provided  for  finance.  In  the  meantime  events 
in  the  colony  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Brit- 
ish authorities  and  an  invasion  was  planned.  Sir 
Henry  Clinton,  from  New  Yor^,  and  Lord  Cornwallis, 
from  England,  were  ordered  to  join  Governor  Mar- 
tin and  the  loyalists  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear. 
Fortune  and  prompt  action  averted  this  great  men- 
ace. In  December  the  first  regiment  under  Col. 
Robert  Howe  marched  to  Virginia  and  aided  in  the 
defeat  of  Lord  Dunmore,  who  was  rousing  the  Tories 
of  that  province;  in  the  same  month  900  men  were 
sent  to  South  Carolina  on  a  similar  errand.  North 
Carolina  was  thus  the  first  colony  to  send  troops 


468       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

beyond  her  borders  for  defense  of  the  revolutionary 
cause.  At  home  military  achievement  was  no  less 
worthy.  The  Scotch  settlers  on  the  upper  Cape 
Fear,  in  the  region  of  Fayettville,  in  answer  to  an 
appeal  of  Governor  Martin,  raised  the  royal  stand- 
ard in  January,  1776,  and  two  thousand  strong  pre- 
pared to  join  Governor  Martin  and  the  British.  But 
they  were  intercepted  on  February  27  at  Moore's 
Creek  Bridge,  eighteen  miles  from  Wilmington,  and 
defeated.  This  was  the  first  victory  won  by  an 
American  force  in  the  War  of  the  Eevolution.  It 
strengthened  the  cause  in  North  Carolina,  disheart- 
ened the  Tories,  and  when  the  British  arrived  on  the 
coast  a  few  weeks  later  they  received  so  little  sym- 
pathy that  on  June  1  they  departed  for  Charleston, 
S.  C. 

In  the  flush  of  victory  the  North  Carolina  patriots 
made  a  most  radical  decision.  On  April  12,  1776, 
the  fourth  provincial  congress  in  session  at  Halifax 
resolved  that 

"The  delegates  for  this  colony  in  the  Continental  Congress  be  em- 
powered to  concur  with  the  delegates  of  the  other  colonies  in  declar- 
ing Independence,  and  forming  foreign  alliances,  reserving  to  this  col- 
ony the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of  forming  a  constitution  and  laws  for 
this  colony,  and  of  appointing  delegates  from  time  to  time  (under  the 
direction  of  a  general  representation  thereof)  to  meet  delegates  of  the 
other  colonies  for  such  purposes  as  shall  be  hereafter  pointed  out." 

This  was  the  first  instruction  for  independence  by 
any  colony.  It  gives  North  Carolina  patriots  a  high 
place  in  the  history  of  the  time. 

The  Congress  then  turned  to  the  formation  of  a 
permanent  frame  of  government  and  state  constitu- 
tion. Its  efforts  were  not  successful.  Two  factions 
appeared:  one  represented  the  ideals  of  radical 
democracy,  demanding  that  all  officers  be  chosen  by 
the  people,  the  other  holding  to  the  more  conserva- 
tive British  forms  of  government.  Both  factions 
appealed  to  the  people  in  the  election  for  the  Fifth 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  469 

Congress.  Though  Samuel  Johnston,  leader  of  the 
conservatives,  was  defeated,  many  of  his  followers 
were  elected  and  the  constitution  which  was  framed 
was  conservative.  Many  features  of  the  colonial 
constitution  were  preserved.  Property  qualifica- 
tions were  required  for  membership  in  both  houses 
of  the  legislature,  representation  was  apportioned 
according  to  counties,  not  population,  and  to  vote  for 
state  senator  fifty  acres  of  land  was  a  prerequisite. 
The  legislature  was  supreme ;  it  elected  the  governor 
and  all  state  officers;  its  annual  sessions  were  the 
only  check  on  legislative  tyranny. 

North  Carolina  in  Revolutionary  War. 

The  high  fervor  that  carried  the  colony  into  revolt 
and  created  an  independent  government,  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  period  of  reaction.  "After  the  first  out- 
burst of  local  patriotism  in  the  spring  of  1776,  the 
support  of  the  cause  as  far  as  the  people  were  con- 
cerned was  purely  compulsory."  The  state's  quota 
in  the  continental  line  was  never  complete,  and  the 
militia  were  also  recruited  with  difficulty.  There 
were  three  causes  of  this  apathy.  First,  most  of 
those  who  had  participated  in  the  Regulation  move- 
ment were  neutral;  they  saw  in  the  Revolution  a 
continuation  of  the  old  control  of  the  colony  by  the 
eastern  counties;  indeed  the  same  men  who  led 
Tryon's  army  in  1771  commanded  the  patriots  in 
1776.  Equally  important  was  the  influence  of  the 
Scotch,  who  had  very  recently  settled  on  the  Cape 
Fear.  Having  been  loyal  to  the  cause  of  monarchy, 
they  sympathized  with  Governor  Martin.  Thus  a 
large  portion  of  the  state  was  neutralized.  Finally 
there  was  a  cleavage  within  the  patriot  party,  similar 
to  the  alignment  in  the  formation  of  the  constitu- 
tion, and  many  conservatives,  among  them  Samuel 
Johnston  and  William  Hooper,  retired  from  public 


470       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

life  and  became  hike-warm  when  the  radicals,  under 
Willie  Jones,  became  important  in  state  politics. 

Yet  the  North  Carolina  patriots  were  directly 
concerned  in  some  notable  military  achievements  of 
the  Revolution.  They  served  with  distinction  at 
Brandywine  and  Germantown,  and  North  Carolina 
troops  composed  most  of  the  opposition  to  the  Brit- 
ish invasion  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  during 
1778-1779;  with  the  capture  of  Charleston  in  1780, 
all  of  the  North  Carolina  Continentals  and  consider- 
able militia  were  captured.  The  way  for  invasion 
seemed  open,  the  Tories  also  lifted  their  heads  and 
Cornwallis  promised  to  take  advantage  as  soon  as 
the  harvest  was  gathered.  For  defense,  the  militia 
was  the  only  reliance.  Gen.  Griffith  Rutherford 
soon  assembled  900  men  at  Charlotte,  and  with  the 
aid  of  other  militia  leaders  gave  confidence  by  vic- 
tories over  the  Tories  at  Ramsour's  Mill  (near  Lin- 
colnton,  N.  C.),  Colson's  Mill  and  Hanging  Rock. 
During  these  activities  in  the  summer  of  1780,  regu- 
lars from  the  Continental  army  arrived  over  whom 
Gen.  Horatio  Gates  was  given  command.  On  August 
16  occurred  the  disastrous  battle  of  Camden ;  further 
resistance  seemed  impossible  for  Col.  Patrick  Fer- 
guson, Cornwallis 's  able  lieutenant,  advanced  as  far 
north  as  Lincolnton,  N.  C.,  in  pursuit  of  the  patriot 
militia.  Suddenly  relief  came  from  beyond  the 
mountains.  Alarmed  at  Ferguson's  advance  and 
his  threats,  the  men  of  Watauga,  1,000  strong, 
started  for  the  front.  Learning  of  their  approach 
Ferguson  fell  back  to  King's  Mountain,  and  there 
his  army  was  surrounded  and  defeated,  and  he  him- 
self was  killed  on  October  7.  The  effect  of  the 
battle  was  to  check  Cornwallis 's  advance  and  to  give 
time  for  the  reorganization  of  the  American  army. 
This  was  accomplished  by  Gen.  Nathaniel  Greene, 
who  took  command  at  Charlotte  in  December.  Soon 


CAVALRY  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  GUILFORD. 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  471 

he  sent  Gen.  Daniel  Morgan  across  the  South  Caro- 
lina line  to  collect  supplies  and  to  check  the  Tories. 
He  met  and  defeated  Tarleton  at  Cowpens  on  Jan. 
17, 1781.  Then  began  the  famous  Greene  retreat,  the 
withdrawal  of  Morgan,  also  of  Greene,  across  North 
Carolina  to  the  Virginia  line,  which  culminated  in 
the  battle  of  Guilford  Court  House,  and  Cornwal- 
lis's  retreat  to  Wilmington,  eventually  to  Yorktown. 
These  campaigns  were  accompanied  by  a  fratri- 
cidal conflict,  a  civil  strife  between  the  Tories  and 
the  Whigs.  An  interesting  incident  was  the  capture 
of  Gov.  Thomas  Burke  and  his  staff  in  1781  at  Hills- 
boro  by  David  Fanning,  a  noted  Tory  leader. 
He  was  sent  to  Charleston  for  imprisonment,  but  he 
soon  escaped,  returned  to  North  Carolina  and  re- 
sumed his  duties  as  governor.  In  the  same  year 
the  strength  of  the  Tories  was  broken  at  the  battle 
of  Elizabethtown  and  by  a  campaign  of  Gen.  Griffith 
Rutherford  in  the  Cape  Fear  region.  This  enmity 
of  Whig  and  Tory  survived  the  Revolution  and 
caused  an  extensive  confiscation  of  loyalist  property 
by  the  state  government. 

North  Carolina's  Attitude  to  the  Federal  Constitution. 

The  first  political  problem  after  the  Revolution  was 
that  of  the  Federal  constitution ;  indeed  North  Caro- 
lina has  an  unique  place  in  the  formation  of  the 
Union  in  being  the  last  state,  except  Rhode  Island, 
to  ratify  the  constitution.  For  this  hesitation  there 
were  various  reasons.  A  strong  sense  of  individu- 
alism, inherent  in  the  people,  bred  indifference  to- 
ward any  central  government  whatever.  Moreover, 
the  old  alignment  of  conservative  and  radical  was 
still  alive,  and  over  the  Federal  constitution  con- 
troversy was  even  more  bitter  than  in  1776  over  the 
state  constitution.  The  radicals,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Willie  Jones,  Rev.  David  Caldwell,  Timothy 


472       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Bloodworth  and  others,  feared  a  consolidated  repub- 
lic, claiming  that  the  words  ' '  We  the  people ' '  in  the 
constitution  should  read  "We  the  States,"  criti- 
cised the  Federal  judiciary,  believing  it  would  en- 
croach upon  the  state  courts,  opposed  Federal  taxa- 
tion, and  demanded  that  a  Bill  of  Eights  should  pre- 
cede the  constitution.  On  the  other  hand  the  Con- 
servatives, led  by  James  Iredell,  Wm.  B.  Davie, 
Samuel  Johnston  and  Eichard  Dobbs  Spaight  fa- 
vored ratification,  but  the  Constitutional  Convention 
which  met  at  Hillsboro  in  July,  1788,  was  controlled 
by  the  radicals  or  Anti-Federalists,  failed  to  ratify 
the  constitution,  although  ten  states  had  done  so,  and 
recommended  a  Bill  of  Eights  and  twenty- six  amend- 
ments. But  public  opinion  soon  began  to  change: 
New  York  ratified  just  after  the  North  Carolina 
Convention  closed,  leaving  this  state  and  Ehode 
Island  the  only  ones  outside  the  Union.  The  people 
also  realized  that  the  friends  of  the  constitution  in 
North  Carolina  regarded  it  as  a  compact  and  the 
Federal  government  as  an  agent  of  the  states ;  con- 
sequently a  second  Constitutional  Convention  at 
Fayetteville  on  Nov.  21,  1789,  ratified  the  constitu- 
tion after  a  stormy  session. 

A  strong  sense  of  state  individualism,  however, 
long  prevailed  and  aroused  the  suspicion  and  hostil- 
ity toward  the  measures  of  the  central  government. 
In  Congress,  Hugh  Williamson  led  the  opposition  to 
assumption  of  state  debts,  and  in  'western  North 
Carolina  opposition  to  the  excise  law  was  as  effec- 
tive as  in  Pennsylvania.  In  1790  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, excited  over  the  assumption  of  state  debts, 
refused  to  take  an  oath  to  support  the  constitution, 
and  the  Court  of  Equity  refused  to  obey  a  writ  of 
certiorari  issued  by  the  Federal  District  Court  re- 
moving a  case  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States. 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  473 

The  general  discontent  which  these  incidents  sug- 
gest caused  a  reaction  to  Anti-Federalism;  in  1793 
that  party  carried  all  the  Congressional  districts 
save  one,  and  in  the  person  of  Nathaniel  Macon, 
North  Carolina  Anti-Federalism  had  a  prominent 
place  in  the  councils  of  the  party.  Yet  the  milder 
type  of  Anti-Federalism  and  Federalist  policies 
prevailed  in  North  Carolina.  In  1797  the  Assembly, 
in  which  the  Federalists  had  a  majority,  instructed 
the  state's  delegates  in  Congress  to  labor  for  the 
repeal  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  while  the  suc- 
ceeding Assembly,  having  an  Anti-Federalist  ma- 
jority, failed  to  approve  the  Virginia-Kentucky  Re- 
solves. The  year  1800  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
decline  of  the  Federalists  in  North  Carolina.  An 
important  factor  in  the  Anti-Federalist  victory  was 
Joseph  Gales  and  the  newly  founded  Raleigh 
Register.  But  as  long  as  the  party  lasted,  the  Fed- 
eralists had  a  strong  hold  in  the  Fayetteville  and 
Salisbury  districts,  and  during  the  War  of  1812  one 
of  the  most  prominent  anti-administration  leaders 
of  Congress  was  William  Gaston,  of  Craven  county. 

Domestic  Affairs. 

Gradually  domestic  problems  assumed  import- 
ance. In  1788  Wake  county  was  chosen  the  seat  of 
government;  in  1791  the  city  of  Raleigh  was  laid 
off,  and  in  1794  the  Assembly  held  its  sessions  in  the 
new  capitol.  In  1810  a  system  of  state  banks  was 
inaugurated.  The  cause  of  internal  improvements 
became  popular.  In  the  last  decade  of  the  Eight- 
eenth century  bounties  for  iron  manufactures  were 
offered,  and  in  1790  the  Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  con- 
necting the  Pasquotank  River  with  Elizabeth  River 
in  Virginia  was  chartered ;  although  begun  as  a  priv- 
ate enterprise,  it  was  ultimately  finished  by  state 
aid,  and  later  the  state  took  stock  in  various  navi- 


474       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

gation  companies,  whose  aim  was  to  improve  rivers 
and  harbors,  but  no  step  was  made  toward  orga- 
nized effort  by  the  state  until  a  Board  of  Internal 
Improvements  was  created  in  1819.  The  need  of 
better  educational  facilities  was  also  felt;  the  con- 
stitution provided  for  "a  school  or  schools"  for  the 
instruction  of  youth  with  salaries  paid  by  the  public, 
which  shall  enable  them  to  instruct  at  low  prices 
and  for  higher  learning  in  one  or  more  universities. 
The  University  of  North  Carolina  was  founded,  but 
nothing  was  accomplished  for  public  education,  al- 
though various  governors  urged  the  cause  and 
Archibald  D.  Murphy,  in  1817,  presented  to  the  As- 
sembly a  comprehensive  and  searching  educational 
report.  Even  more  vital  than  these  issues,  and  pro- 
foundly influencing  them,  was  the  cause  of  constitu- 
tional reform.  The  system  of  representation,  which 
apportioned  membership  in  the  Assembly  according 
to  counties  rather  than  population,  fostered  the  old 
hostility  of  the  eastern  and  western  counties;  for 
during  the  early  years  of  the  century  those  of  the 
west  so  developed  that  they  surpassed  the  east  in 
population  and  wealth,  but  by  virtue  of  a  larger 
number  of  counties,  the  east  controlled  legislation. 
Gradually  the  two  sections  were  divided  on  all  im- 
portant issues,  the  east  opposing  further  aid  to  in- 
ternal improvements  and  public  education,  the  west 
demanding  a  progressive  policy.  In  1824,  the  year 
of  national  political  ferment,  the  west  supported 
Jackson,  the  east  Crawford,  for  the  presidency,  but 
when,  in  1828,  the  east  adopted  Jackson  on  account 
of  his  state's  rights'  principles,  the  west  became 
lukewarm,  and  by  1832  was  identified  with  the  new 
Whig  party. 

New  Constitution. 

After  prolonged  agitation  which  threatened  to 
rend  the  state,  the  western  counties  under  the  lead- 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  475 

ership  of  David  Lowry  Swain  and  Willie  P.  Man- 
gum  forced  the  submission  of  reform  to  the  people. 
In  1834,  and  in  accordance  with  a  popular  but  sec- 
tional vote,  a  constitutional  convention  met  at  Eal- 
eigh  in  1835.  In  a  series  of  amendments  representa- 
tion in  the  House  of  Commons  was  apportioned 
among  counties  according  to  their  population,  in  the 
Senate  according  to  districts  formed  according  to 
taxes.  The  Assembly  was  robbed  of  much  of  its 
power  by  establishing  biennial  instead  of  annual 
sessions,  and  by  giving  the  election  of  governor  to 
the  people.  Free  negroes  were  disfranchised,  and 
largely  through  the  efforts  of  William  Gaston  the 
32d  clause  of  the  constitution,  which  excluded  from 
public  office  those  denying  the  truth  of  the  Protestant 
religion,  was  made  to  read  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
religion.  These  reforms  were  ratified  by  a  sectional 
vote,  all  western  counties  giving  a  majority  for 
the  amendment,  the  eastern,  except  one,  voting 
against  it. 

Whig  Ascendency. 

The  leaders  in  the  cause  of  constitutional  reform 
were  Whigs,  and  the  succeeding  fifteen  years  (1835 
to  1850)  marked  the  period  of  Whig  ascendency. 
In  national  politics  such  able  leaders  as  Mangum, 
William  A.  Graham  and  Geo.  E.  Badger  kept  North 
Carolina  loyal  to  the  party  when  the  real  interests 
of  the  South  seemed  to  be  with  the  Democrats,  and 
brought  into  the  state  a  sentiment  of  nationality 
which  later  opposed  secession.  The  real  explana- 
tion of  the  party's  supremacy,  however,  was  its 
identification  with  the  cause  of  domestic  progress. 
Three  notable  achievements  were  made  under  Whig 
leadership.  Chief  of  these  was  the  inauguration  of 
a  public  school  system. 


476       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 
Public  Education. 

In  1825  the  Assembly  provided  for  a  literary  fund 
to  be  used  for  educational  purposes.  By  1838  this 
amounted  to  $1,732,485.  After  a  few  appropriations 
had  been  made  a  revised  school  law  was  enacted  in 
1840,  framed  by  Bartlett  Yancey,  which  distributed 
the  income  among  the  counties  according  to  Federal 
population,  and  empowered  the  county  courts  to  sup- 
plement it  by  a  local  county  tax.  There  were  many 
difficulties;  local  taxation  of  the  counties  not  being 
mandatory,  many  failed  to  give  local  support.  Not 
until  1846  were  schools  established  in  all  counties, 
and  there  was  no  attempt  at  organized  educational 
administration  until  1852,  when  Calvin  H.  Wiley 
was  appointed  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools. 
In  1860,  on  the  eve  of  the  War  of  Secession,  the 
sum  of  $255,641.12  was  spent  for  public  educa- 
tion, and  throughout  that  conflict  the  schools  were 
kept  open  and  the  literary  fund  was  kept  a  sacred 
trust.  With  the  failure  of  banks  and  the  collapse 
after  the  war,  the  literary  fund  was  lost. 

During  the  same  period  (1840  to  1860)  the  number 
of  male  colleges  increased  from  three  to  six,  the 
foremost  being,  besides  the  University  already  es- 
tablished, Davidson,  Wake  Forest  and  Trinity;  and 
the  number  of  female  colleges  increased  from  one  to 
thirteen. 

Internal  Improvements. 

The  Whig  leaders  adopted  a  more  liberal  policy 
toward  internal  improvements.  Better  transporta- 
tion facilities  were  necessary,  but  the  failure  of 
earlier  corporations  and  the  state's  investment  in 
them  aroused  opposition  to  further  state  aid.  A 
new  period  opened  with  the  completion  of  the  Wil- 
mington and  Weldon  and  Raleigh  and  Gaston  lines 
in  1840,  both  lines  being  assisted  by  liberal  state  aid. 
The  western  counties  were  unsupplied,  and  in  1845 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  477 

a  failure  of  crops  created  a  famine,  although  corn 
was  rotting  in  the  fields  of  the  eastern  counties. 
The  Whig  leaders,  principally  William  A.  Graham, 
John  M.  Morehead  and  William  S.  Ashe,  urged  the 
building  of  a  road  from  the  coast  to  the  mountains ; 
but  the  Democrats  and  the  eastern  counties,  partly 
from  the  embarrassment  of  the  existing  roads  and 
the  state's  investment  in  them,  partly  from  old 
sectional  feeling,  opposed  the  movement.  But  in 
1849,  after  a  prolonged  debate,  the  North  Carolina 
Railroad  Company  was  chartered,  by  vote  of  Mr. 
Graves,  speaker  of  the  Senate,  a  Democrat,  the 
state  guaranteeing  two-fifths  of  the  capital  stock. 
In  a  few  years  the  road  was  completed  from  Golds- 
boro  to  Charlotte,  and  an  extension  toward  Asheville 
was  begun,  while  the  Atlantic  and  North  Carolina 
road  was  built  to  connect  Goldsboro  and  the  coast. 
The  enterprise  proved  a  success  financially,  while 
socially  it  was  of  great  service,  doing  much  to  abolish 
the  old  hostility  of  the  eastern  and  western  counties. 

Charities. 

The  domestic  policy  of  the  Whig  party  was  also 
pervaded  by  a  humanitarian  spirit.  In  1845  the  In- 
stitution for  the  Deaf,  Dumb  and  Blind  was  founded, 
and  in  1849,  largely  through  the  appeal  of  Dorothea 
Dix  and  James  C.  Dobbin,  the  Assembly  established 
the  present  Central  Asylum  for  the  Insane  at  Ral- 
eigh. In  1848,  also,  the  right  of  married  women 
before  the  common  law  was  amended  by  a  statutory 
provision  that  maiden  lands  of  wives  should  not  be 
liable  to  execution  for  the  husband's  debts,  and  that 
no  man  could  sell  his  wife's  property  without  her 
consent,  given  in  presence  of  witnesses. 

Whigs  Defeated. 

Notwithstanding  this  program  of  progress,  the 
[Whig  party  lost  its  supremacy  in  1850.  For  this 


478       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

there  were  two  causes,  one  local  and  one  national. 
The  constitutional  reforms  in  1835  had  made  taxes 
the  basis  of  membership  in  the  Senate,  and  had  pre- 
served the  property  qualification  as  a  requisite  to 
vote  for  state  senators.  In  1848  David  S.  Reid, 
Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  through  the 
advice  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  made  manhood  suf- 
frage the  issue  of  his  campaign,  demanding  the 
abolition  of  the  property  qualification  and  an  ap- 
portionment of  senators  according  to  Federal  popu- 
lation. Though  defeated  in  1848,  Eeid  and  also  a 
Democratic  Assembly  were  elected  in  1850,  but  on 
account  of  obstruction  by  the  Whigs  the  proposed 
reform  did  not  pass  the  Assembly  until  1854,  and 
was  ratified  by  the  people  the  following  year. 

Slavery. 

In  addition  to  the  local  issue,  a  division  in  na- 
tional policy  toward  slavery  was  fatal  to  the  Whigs. 
In  discussion  of  the  proposed  Wilmot  Proviso,  which 
excluded  slavery  from  the  territory  acquired  from 
Mexico,  George  E.  Badger,  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  admitted  the  right,  though  doubting 
the  expediency  of  Congress,  to  exclude  slavery  from 
territories  and  denied  the  right  of  a  state  to  secede 
from  the  Union ;  while  Thomas  L.  Clingman,  a  Whig 
leader  of  the  western  counties,  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Foote,  of  Mississippi,  declared  that  the  policy  of 
exclusion  would  be  revolutionary  and  leaned  toward 
secession  as  a  means  of  protection  for  the  South. 
The  North  Carolina  Whigs,  however,  supported  the 
Compromise  of  1850,  but  in  1852  an  irreparable 
schism  developed.  Mr.  Clingman  favored  the  nomi- 
nation of  Millard  Fillmore  for  the  Presidency,  and 
when  General  Scott  was  nominated  he  left  the  party, 
declaring  that  it  had  been  captured  by  the  abolition- 
ists, and  supported  Franklin  Pierce,  the  Democratic 


XORTH  CAKOLINA,  1775-1861.  479 

candidate.  This  defection  was  fatal,  for  although 
the  Whigs  nominated  William  A.  Graham  for  the 
vice-presidency,  the  electoral  vote  of  North  Caro- 
lina showed  a  majority  for  Pierce.  Thus,  after 
years  of  service,  the  Whig  party  lost  control  of  local 
and  national  political  issues  in  North  Carolina. 
Some  of  its  members  joined  the  short-lived  Know 
Nothing  party;  among  these  were  John  A.  Gilmer 
and  Kenneth  Raynor,  both  prominent  in  the  Know 
Nothing  movement. 

Toward  the  slavery  question  and  the  agitation 
which  resulted  in  secession,  North  Carolina's  atti- 
tude was  conservative.  For  this  there  were  various 
reasons.  The  small  farm  and  the  middle  class 
planter  being  the  dominant  factors  in  industry,  the 
milder  type  of  slavery  prevailed  and  the  slave  sys- 
tem never  secured  so  strong  a  hold  on  the  life  of  the 
people  as  in  most  other  Southern  states.  Moreover,  in 
the  middle  and  western  counties,  there  was  a  strong 
anti-slavery  sentiment.  These  counties  had  been 
settled  by  Scotch-Irish,  Germans  and  Quakers,  and 
slavery  had  far  less  hold  than  in  the  east.  Illus- 
trative of  this  sentiment  were  Hinton  Rowan 
Helper,  Benjamin  S.  Hedrick,  Daniel  R.  Goodloe, 
men  who  opposed  slavery  in  the  interest  of  the 
whites  rather  than  the  negroes.  Indeed,  in  spite  of 
the  intense  political  controversy  over  slavery,  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  steady  undercurrent  of  feeling 
among  thinking  people  that  sooner  or  later  the  in- 
stitution must  end. 

Therefore,  sympathy  with  other  states  and  the 
logic  of  events,  rather  than  personal  grievances,  led 
North  Carolina  into  the  Confederacy.  Although 
secession  had  been  advocated  by  political  leaders, 
notably  Thomas  L.  Clingman  and  William  W.  Hoi- 
den,  the  principle  made  no  headway  among  the  peo- 
ple until  1857.  Then  the  publication  of  Helper's 


480       THE  HISTOEY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Impending  Crisis  and  John  Brown's  raid  aroused 
public  sentiment.  Possession  of  Helper's  book  at 
once  became  a  political  crime,  and  sympathy  for 
Virginia  was  expressed.  The  Council  of  State 
adopted  resolutions  threatening  a  new  form  of  gov- 
ernment unless  slave  property  was  protected.  Pub- 
lic meetings  were  held  in  various  counties  that  ex- 
pressed defiance  to  the  North  and  to  abolition.  In 
one  year  secession  sentiment  had  grown  more  than 
in  all  the  preceding  ones,  and  a  secession  party, 
small  but  active,  had  come  into  existence. 

The  rising  tide  of  secession  and  proslavery  senti- 
ment at  once  met  strong  opposition.  In  1858  John 
W.  Ellis,  a  states-rights  Democrat,  received  the 
nomination  of  his  party  for  governor.  He  was  op- 
posed by  Duncan  K.  McEae,  Independent,  who 
sought  to  turn  the  people's  mind  from  slavery  to 
economic  development  and  education.  Though  Ellis 
was  victorious,  McRae  received  a  large  vote,  and 
W.  W.  Holden,  disappointed  at  the  nomination  of 
Ellis,  now  drifted  from  the  radicals  to  conservatism. 
Two  years  later  opposition  to  slavery  agitation  and 
secession  was  even  stronger.  The  Whig  party  re- 
vived, nominated  John  Pool  for  governor,  ridiculed 
secession  in  its  convention,  and  on  a  local  issue,  ad- 
valorem  slave  taxation,  sought  to  divert  the  people 
from  slavery  questions.  The  Democrats  renomi- 
nated  Ellis,  and  incorporated  a  strong  states-rights 
clause  in  their  platform.  In  the  campaign  Ellis  in 
vain  tried  to  arouse  the  people  on  the  national  ques- 
tion. He  was  forced  to  face  the  local  issue;  by 
adroit  argument  he  won  the  fight,  but  the  Demo- 
cratic majority  was  reduced  to  10,000  below  that  of 
1858,  though  the  vote  was  the  largest  ever  polled  in 
the  state.  Clearly  the  conservatism  of  the  people 
made  them  hesitate  to  endorse  radical  views  re- 
garding slavery  and  secession. 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1775-1861.  481 

The  election  of  Lincoln  gave  new  life  to  secession 
agitation.  Public  meetings  were  held  in  the  interest 
of  secession,  and  in  the  Assembly  which  met  in 
November,  1860,  resolutions  asserting  and  denying 
the  right  of  secession  were  introduced,  but  neither 
were  adopted.  The  secessionists  demanded  the  call 
of  a  state  convention  to  consider  Federal  relations, 
and  after  prolonged  discussion  in  the  Assembly  and 
throughout  the  state  on  Jan.  30,  1861,  both  factions 
agreed  to  submit  to  the  people  the  question  of  a  con- 
vention whose  work,  if  called,  should  be  ratified  by 
the  people,  while  the  election  of  delegates  was  to  be 
held  at  the  same  time.  The  vote  was  cast  on  Feb- 
ruary 28 ;  by  a  majority  of  651  the  call  of  a  conven- 
tion was  rejected,  and  the  majority  of  the  delegates 
elected  were  Union  men.  The  conservatism  of  the 
people  was  greater  than  that  of  their  leaders.  But 
the  efforts  of  the  secessionists  did  not  abate  and  the 
trend  of  events  soon  favored  them.  The  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter  and  a  request  by  the  secretary  of  war  for 
two  regiments  of  troops  from  North  Carolina  were 
decisive.  Even  the  Union  newspapers  and  leaders 
gave  up  the  fight.  Governor  Ellis  called  a  special 
session  of  the  Assembly  which  met  on  May  1,  1861. 
A  state  convention  with  unlimited  powers  was  or- 
dered, and  preparations  were  made  for  war.  Public 
sentiment  had  quickly  changed;  there  was  no  oppo- 
sition to  military  activity,  to  the  convention  or  to 
separation  from  the  Union.  The  social  bond  was 
stronger  than  the  political  bond ;  in  the  critical  hour, 
the  choice  of  North  Carolina  was  to  fight  with  sister 
states,  although  conservative  political  sentiment  and 
love  of  the  Union  had  heretofore  been  supreme. 

Secession. 

There  remained  one  final  problem,  viz.:  the  man- 
ner of  withdrawal  from  the  Union.  In  the  conven- 


482       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

tion  which  assembled  at  Ealeigh  on  May  20,  there 
were  two  distinct  factions — one  dominated  by  the 
principles  of  the  old  Whig  party,  the  other  repre- 
senting the  opinion  of  the  advanced  Democracy.  In 
the  preliminary  test  of  strength  the  latter  element 
proved  supreme,  Weldon  N.  Edwards  being  chosen 
president  over  William  A.  Graham.  Two  sets  of 
resolutions  looking  to  the  withdrawal  from  the 
Union  were  then  offered — one  by  George  E.  Badger 
providing  for  separation  by  means  of  revolution, 
without  mentioning  secession  in  its  applied  mean- 
ing; the  other  framed  by  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  in- 
troduced by  Burton  Craige,  based  on  the  idea 
of  constitutional  secession,  abrogated  and  rescinded 
the  ordinance  of  the  convention  by  which  North 
Carolina  had  ratified  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States  in  1789.  Mr.  Badger's  resolutions  were  re- 
jected, and  after  a  test  vote  those  of  Mr.  Craige  were 
unanimously  adopted,  the  Whigs  and  Conservatives 
sacrificing  their  political  convictions  in  the  interest 
of  a  great  cause.  Thus  on  May  20, 1861,  North  Caro- 
lina left  the  Union. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Moore's  History  of  North  Carolina  (2  vols.,  1880)  is 
the  only  book  that  covers  the  entire  period  of  this  chapter,  is  very  in- 
complete and  must  be  supplemented  by  other  studies.  For  the  Revo- 
lution, Colonial  and  State  Records  (Vols.  X.-XXIV.)  are  an  invaluable 
repository  of  documents;  Ashe,  History  of  North  Carolina  (Vol.  I.,  1908) 
Is  written  close  to  the  sources;  Sykes,  Transition  from  Colony  to  Com- 
monwealth (Johns  Hopkins  Studies);  Hoyt,  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of 
Independence  (1906)  and  Schenck,  North  Carolina  1780-81  (1888)  are 
useful  studies,  while  Caruthers,  Old  North  State  (1854,  second  series  1856) 
contains  illustrative  material  derived  from  legend  and  tradition.  Po- 
litical history  from  1789-1861  is  well  outlined  in  Wagstaff 's  States  Rights 
And  Political  Parties  in  North  Carolina  (Johns  Hopkins  Press). 

Contributions  to  social  history  are  Weaver,  History  of  Internal  Im- 
provements in  North  Carolina  (Johns  Hopkins  Press);  Bassett,  Slavery  in 
North  Carolina  and  Anti^Slavery  (Ibid)  Weeks,  History  of  the  Common 
School  System  in  the  South  (U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education)  and  Coon,  Docu- 
mentary History  of  Education  in  North  Carolina  (N.  C.  Historical  Com- 
mission). 

WILLIAM  K.  BOYD, 

Professor  of  History,  Trinity  College,  N.  C. 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1861-1865.  483 


CHAPTER  IV. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  IN  THE  CONFEDERACY, 
1861-1865. 

North    Carolina    Joins   the   Confederacy. 

The  question  whether  North  Carolina  desired  to 
call  a  convention  to  consider  secession  was  submit- 
ted by  the  legislature  to  the  people  in  January,  1861. 
The  vote  on  the  Referendum  was  held  February  28, 
and  resulted  in  a  majority  of  651  against  the  call  of 
the  convention.  But  events  marched  rapidly.  The 
failure  of  the  Peace  Convention,  to  which  the  state 
sent,  as  her  delegates,  ex-Chief  Justice  Thomas 
Ruffin,  ex-Governors  Morehead  and  Reid,  Daniel  M. 
Barringer  and  George  Davis,  was  followed  in  rapid 
succession  by  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  the  call  of 
President  Lincoln  for  troops  and  the  secession  of 
Virginia.  The  issue  had  come  to  be  not  whether  the 
state  would  secede,  but  whether  the  people  would 
fight  on  the  side  of  their  neighbors  and  kindred  of 
the  South,  or  against  them.  On  that  issue  there 
could  be  no  division  or  hesitation. 

The  legislature,  called  in  special  session  by  the 
governor,  met  on  May  1.  In  two  hours  after  its 
assembling  it  ordered  another  Referendum  for  May 
17  on  the  question  of  calling  a  convention,  the  con- 
vention to  assemble,  if  voted,  on  May  20.  The  con- 
vention was  voted  by  a  large  majority.  On  its  as- 
sembling May  20,  the  convention,  composed  of  many 
of  the  ablest  men  of  the  state,  by  a  unanimous  vote 
repealed  the  act  of  November,  1789,  by  which  North 
Carolina  had  acceded  to  the  Federal  Union,  and  de- 
clared the  state  to  be  no  longer  one  of  the  United 
States.  A  subsequent  resolution  declared  the  acces- 


484       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

sion  of  the  state  to  the  Confederate  States,  by  whose 
congress  it  was  accepted  as  a  member  a  week  later, 
on  May  27. 

Preparing  for  War. 

But  before  the  convention  met,  the  state  was  pre- 
paring for  the  war  that  had  become  inevitable.  On 
April  15,  Governor  Ellis  had  replied  to  the  call  of 
the  United  States  authorities  for  two  regiments, 
"You  can  get  no  troops  from  North  Carolina."  The 
governor  immediately  issued  the  call  for  the  legis- 
lature to  meet  in  session  May  1,  and  under  his  or- 
ders the  state  troops  seized  the  forts  on  our  coast 
and  the  United  States  arsenal  at  Fayetteville  on 
April  16.  He  also  called  for  volunteers,  and  formed 
a  camp  of  instruction  at  Raleigh  under  Col.  D.  H. 
Hill  that  the  new  troops  might  be  trained  and  dis- 
ciplined. 

The  legislature,  without  waiting  for  the  assemb- 
ling of  the  convention,  directed  the  governor  to  en- 
roll 20,000  volunteers  for  twelve  months  and  10,000 
state  troops  for  the  war,  the  former  to  elect  their 
own  officers.  The  officers  of  the  state  troops  were 
appointed  by  the  governor.  The  legislature  also 
voted  $5,000,000  for  the  public  defense,  and  author- 
ized the  governor  to  send  troops  to  Virginia  to  aid 
in  the  defense  of  that  state.  The  First  Regiment 
N.  C.  Volunteers,  later  known  as  the  "Bethel" 
Regiment,  was  speedily  organized  with  D.  H.  Hill 
(later  lieutenant-general)  as  its  colonel,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  Virginia,  three  companies  arriving  at 
Richmond  May  18,  and  the  other  seven  companies  on 
May  21.  On  June  10  this  regiment  was  at  the  battle 
of  Bethel.  As  Virginia  did  not  secede  till  May  17, 
and  her  troops  were  not  turned  over  to  the  Confed- 
eracy till  June  7,  for  several  days  the  North  Caro- 
lina soldiers  were  in  Virginia  simply  as  allies. 

The  enthusiasm  was  universal,  and  at  the  time 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1861-1865.  485 

public  sentiment  was  as  unanimous  for  secession  as 
the  expression  of  the  convention  had  been. 

James  G.  Martin,  an  old  army  officer  who  had 
served  in  Mexico  and  had  lost  an  arm  at  Cherubusco, 
was  appointed  Adjutant-General  by  the  state,  and 
he  pressed  the  organization  of  the  troops  and  the 
collection  of  arms  and  war  material  with  zeal  and 
intelligence.  In  seven  months  the  state  had  raised, 
equipped  and  turned  over  to  the  Confederacy  40,000 
troops.  Within  a  year,  by  May,  1862,  the  state  had 
nearly  60,000  men  under  arms.  The  total  number 
of  soldiers,  of  all  kinds,  which  the  state  had  in  serv- 
ice during  the  war  was  129,000,  besides  5,000  Home- 
guards,  being,  doubtless,  the  largest  number  fur- 
nished by  any  state  in  the  Confederacy.* 

The  most  serious  difficulty  at  first  was  the  want 
of  arms  and  war  material.  The  state,  when  it  seized 
the  United  States  arsenal  at  Fayetteville,  found 
there  30,000  muskets,  most  of  them  in  poor  condi- 
tion, and  a  very  large  proportion  flint  and  steel. 
They  were  converted  into  percussion  muskets  as 
rapidly  as  the  scarcity  of  workmen  permitted.  There 
were  also  found  in  the  arsenal  six  cannon  and  a  large 
quantity  of  powder.  Four  more  cannon  came  from 
the  military  schools  of  Colonel  Tew  at  Hillsboro  and 
Major  Hill  at  Charlotte.  With  such  equipment 
North  Carolina  entered  into  one  of  the  greatest  wars 
in  history.  As  fast  as  workmen  could  be  found  or 
educated,  factories  were  started  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  swords,  bayonets,  muskets,  percussion  caps, 
powder,  cartridges  and  cartridge  boxes,  belts  and 
other  equipment,  as  well  as  clothing,  caps  and  shoes, 
and  other  supplies  for  the  army.  But  such  were  the 
zeal  of  the  people  and  the  rapidity  of  volunteering, 
that  some  regiments  were  sent  to  Virginia  partly 
armed  with  shotguns,  "buck  and  ball"  ammunition, 

*Clark's  North  Carolina  Regimental  Historic*. 


486       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

and  some  unarmed  altogether.  Artillery  companies 
were  also  hurried  to  the  front  without  cannon  or 
horses.  The  deficiency  of  arms  was  soon  largely 
supplied  by  captures  made  at  Manassas  and  other 
victories,  supplemented  by  the  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion made  in  the  armories  of  the  state  and  of  the 
Confederacy,  and  also  by  some  importations  by  the 
state,  from  time  to  time,  through  the  port  of 
.Wilmington. 

A  clothing  factory  for  the  troops  was  started  by 
the  state  at  Raleigh,  and  all  the  cloth  product  of  the 
cotton  mills  of  the  state  was  called  for.  Many 
blankets,  quilts,  comforts  and  carpets  were  con- 
tributed by  the  patriotic  women  of  the  state.  The 
carpets  cut  up  and  lined  served  fairly  well  for  blank- 
ets. But  captures  from  time  to  time  of  the  enemies' 
stores  were  an  indispensable  aid  in  supplying  the 
deficiencies  in  clothing,  as  well  as  in  arms  and  equip- 
ment. 

The  quartermaster  and  commissary  departments 
were  organized  efficiently  and  well  officered.  The 
state  bought  the  steamer  Ad-Vance,  which,  under 
Capt.  Thomas  M.  Crossen,  ran  the  blockade  twelve 
times  bringing  in  goods,  arms  and  ammunition, 
with  the  result  that  North  Carolina  troops  were  not 
only  the  best  clothed  and  equipped  troops  in  the 
Confederacy,  but  the  state  was  often  able  to  assist 
the  Confederacy  from  its  surplus  of  arms  and  stores. 
The  state  bought  up  100,000  bbls.  resin  and  11,000 
bales  of  cotton,  which  it  shipped  out  to  be  exchanged 
for  whatever  it  most  needed.  Among  the  stores 
thus  brought  in  by  the  Ad-Vance  and  other  blockade 
runners  for  this  state  were  250,000  pairs  shoes, 
250,000  suits  of  uniform,  50,000  blankets,  12,000  over- 
coats, 60,000  pairs  of  cotton  cards,  5,000  sacks  coffee 
for  the  hospitals,  besides  medicines,  machinery, 
arms,  ammunition  and  other  supplies.  Up  to  March, 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1861-1865.  487 

1864,  North  Carolina  had  received  $6,000,000  from 
the  Confederacy  for  the  supply  of  such  articles,  in 
excess  of  its  own  needs,  which  it  had  turned  over, 
besides  stores  of  great  value  furnished  to  the  Con- 
federate government  without  charge.  Besides  cloth- 
ing its  own  troops,  North  Carolina,  in  the  winter 
after  Chickamauga,  sent  14,000  suits  of  uniform  to 
Longstreet's  corps  in  the  western  army.  And  Dr. 
Thomas  D.  Hogg,  the  head  of  the  state  commissary 
department,  reported  to  Governor  Vance  during  the 
last  months  of  the  war  that  he  was  feeding  half  of 
Lee 's  army,  doing  so  in  part  with  provisions  brought 
through  the  blockade,  especially  bacon.* 

Governor  Vance. 

John  W.  Ellis,  who  was  governor  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  war,  died  July  7,  1861,  at  Eed  Sulphur 
Springs,  Va.,  whither  he  had  gone  on  account  of  his 
health,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  speaker  of  the 
senate,  Henry  T.  Clark,  of  Edgecombe.  In  August, 
1862,  Col.  Zebulon  B.  Vance,  of  the  Twenty-sixth 
N.  C.  Regiment,  formerly  a  member  of  the  United 
States  Congress,  was  elected  governor  over  William 
Johnston.  He  took  the  oath  of  office  the  following 
month,  and  discharged  its  duties  with  signal  ability 
till  the  close  of  the  war. 

The  War  in  1861. 

The  first  battle  of  the  war  was  fought  June  10, 
1861,  at  Bethel  on  the  Peninsula  in  Virginia,  be- 
tween Yorktown  and  Hampton.  The  Confederate 
force  consisted  of  the  First  N.  C.  Volunteers,  800 
men,  under  Col.  D.  H.  Hill,  and  600  Virginians  of 
different  commands.  They  were  attacked  by  4,500 
troops  under  Gen.  E.  W.  Pierce  of  B.  F.  Butler 's 


•Governor  Vance's  speech  "  North  Carolina's  Record  "  at'White  Sulphur  Springs, 
Va.,  Aug.  18,  1875,  reprinted.5  Clark's  North,  Carolina  Regiments,  463. 


488       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

command,  which  had  been  sent  out  from  Fortress 
Monroe.  The  Federals  were  repulsed,  losing  eight- 
een killed  and  fifty-three  wounded.  The  Confeder- 
ates had  nine  men  wounded  and  one  killed.  The 
latter,  Henry  L.  "Wyatt,  of  the  Edgecombe  Guards 
in  the  N.  C.  Regiment,  but  a  native  of  Virginia,  was 
the  first  Southern  soldier  killed  in  battle  during  that 
great  struggle.* 

The  effect  of  the  victory  in  the  first  battle,  at 
Bethel,  was  electric,  and  aroused  the  South  to  fever 
heat.  Volunteers  poured  in  on  all  sides  and  con- 
tributions of  all  kinds  for  the  army  were  sent  to 
the  authorities.  Six  weeks  later  on  July  21,  1861, 
came  another  victory,  that  of  Bull  Eun,  or  First 
Manassas,  and  the  South  went  wild.  The  victory 
was  not  utilized  by  the  capture  of  Washington, 
which  might  have  been  entered  on  the  heels  of  the 
fugitive  Federal  army.  The  chief,  if  not  the  only, 
benefit  reaped  from  the  victory  by  the  South  was 
the  arms  and  stores  captured.  This  was  more  than 
offset  by  the  resultant  overconfidence  in  the  South, 
and  the  determination  with  which  the  North  settled 
down  to  a  long  struggle. 

On  the  North  Carolina  coast  the  state  had  taken 
possession  of  Fort  Caswell  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cape 
Fear,  of  Fort  Macon  at  Beaufort,  and  had  erected 
fortifications  at  Hatteras  and  Ocracoke  Inlets  and 
on  Eoanoke  Island.  It  also  owned  four  little  gun- 
boats mounting  one  gun  each,  known  as  the  "mos- 
quito fleet."  These  little  vessels  occasionally 
slipped  out  through  the  inlets  and  picked  up  mer- 
chant ships  when  the  Federal  war  vessels  were  not 
too  near.  In  six  weeks  eight  schooners,  seven  barks 
and  one  brig  were  thus  captured.  The  United  States 


*Captain  Marr  of  Virginia,  it  is  true,  had  been  previously  killed  on  the  sidewalk 
in  Warrenton,  Va.,  as  the  enemy's  cavalry  dashed  through  the  town,  but  he  was 
not  on  duty,  and  there  was  no  battle.  There  were  no  troops  in  the  town  to  op- 
pose the  raiders. 


NOETH  CAROLINA,  1861-1865.  489 

authorities,  in  considering  the  best  method  to  stop 
these  sallies  upon  their  commerce,  had  their  atten- 
tion drawn  to  the  advantage  of  taking  possession  of 
the  sounds  of  North  Carolina  and  the  adjacent  ter- 
ritory, both  because  it  was  a  rich  granary  of  food 
supplies  and  would  also  be  a  back  door  for  the  cap- 
ture of  Norfolk. 

Accordingly,  in  August,  1861,  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler 
sailed  with  a  large  fleet,  mounting  143  long  range 
cannon,  for  the  capture  of  Fort  Hatteras.  The  lat- 
ter mounted  twelve  old-fashioned,  smooth  bore, 
short  range  guns,  while  Fort  Clark,  across  the  Inlet, 
had  seven  of  like  calibre.  Not  one  of  the  guns  in 
the  two  forts  could  reach  the  Federal  fleet,  which  lay 
off  out  of  range  and  raked  the  forts  at  will  with 
their  long  range  missiles.  The  result  was  the  sur- 
render of  the  forts  with  670  men  and  1,000  muskets. 
The  whole  of  eastern  North  Carolina  was  thus  laid 
open.  The  captured  troops  were  taken  North  on  the 
fleet,  but  were  soon  exchanged  and  sent  home. 

Other  troops  were  raised  by  the  state,  but  arms 
were  lacking.  A  regiment  armed  with  squirrel 
rifles  and  butcher  knives  was  sent  to  Boanoke  Island 
with  antiquated  cannon  mounted  on  the  front  wheels 
of  farm  wagons,  drawn  by  farm  mules  in  their  plow 
harness.  Boanoke  Island  was  untenable,  for  the 
Federal  fleet  could  sail  up  the  channel  on  either  side 
and  take  the  fortifications  in  flank.  The  only  sup- 
porting fleet  with  the  Southern  forces  was  the  mos- 
quito fleet  of  9  canal  boats  mounting  one  gun  each. 
There  being  no  coal  obtainable,  the  crews  went 
ashore  from  time  to  time  to  cut  green  wood  for  the 
boilers. 

The  War  in  1862. 

Against  such  preparations  the  Federal  govern- 
ment, in  1862,  sent  a  fleet  of  eighty  vessels,  mounting 
sixty-one  guns  and  carrying,  besides  the  full  com- 


490       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

plement  of  sailors,  15,000  well-equipped  and  disci- 
plined troops,  under  Burnside.  Against  these,  North 
Carolina  had  placed  at  New  Bern  seven  newly  raised 
regiments,  under  Brig.-Gen.  L.  O'B.  Branch,  and 
two  of  like  kind  at  Boanoke  Island  under  Col.  H.  M. 
Shaw.  Both  of  these  commanders  were  brave  men 
who  subsequently  lost  their  lives  in  the  Confederate 
service,  but  they  were,  like  their  men,  without  mili- 
tary experience.  Both  had  been  recently  members 
of  the  United  States  Congress. 

The  Confederacy  was  not  able  to  spare  any  troops 
from  Virginia.  Possibly  some  might  have  been  sent 
from  those  around  Charleston,  but  none  came.  On 
Feb.  7, 1862,  the  Federal  fleet  appeared  before  Boan- 
oke Island.  The  troops  were  landed,  and  the  next 
day  the  attack  was  made  by  land  and  water.  A  gal- 
lant defense  was  made,  but  in  the  face  of  such  odds 
only  one  result  was  possible,  and  all  the  troops 
which  could  not  be  withdrawn  were  captured.  The 
enemy's  vessels  pursued  the  mosquito  fleet,  which 
was  all  captured  or  blown  up  to  avoid  falling  into 
hands  of  the  enemy.  Elizabeth  City  and  Edenton, 
with  the  country  bordering  upon  Albemarle  Sound, 
passed  into  the  control  of  the  Federals,  who  held  it 
for  the  remainder  of  the  war.  Winton  was  burnt 
and  Plymouth  occupied  by  them. 

General  Burnside  then  returned  to  Pamlico  Sound. 
He  landed  his  troops  below  New  Bern  and,  March 
14,  1862,  assaulted  the  Confederate  works  at  that 
place,  which  was  held  by  General  Branch  with  4,000 
men,  including  militia.  The  right  wing  was  repulsed 
notwithstanding  the  aid  of  the  fire  from  the  fleet, 
but  the  left  wing,  penetrating  through  an  unoccu- 
pied gap,  turned  the  flank  of  the  militia.  The  troops 
were  then  withdrawn  and  New  Bern  abandoned. 
The  Confederates  lost  165  killed  and  wounded,  and 
413  prisoners.  The  Federals  lost  470  in  all. 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1861-1865.  491 

On  April  25  Fort  Macon,  surrounded  by  the  Fed- 
eral fleet  and  army,  was  surrendered  after  a  vigor- 
ous bombardment.  Pamlico  Sound  and  the  adjacent 
country,  including  New  Bern,  Beaufort  and  Wash- 
ington, N.  C.,  remained  henceforth  in  Federal  pos- 
session. 

In  May,  1862,  Norfolk  was  evacuated,  and  the  Con- 
federate army  retired  before  McClellan's  advance 
from  Yorktown  to  the  gates  of  Richmond.  In  the 
latter  part  of  June  occurred  the  famous  Seven  Days' 
Battles,  which  drove  the  Federal  army  to  the  shelter 
of  its  fleet  at  Harrison's  Landing,  with  the  loss  of 
fifty-two  cannon,  27,000  muskets,  10,000  prisoners 
and  vast  quantities  of  stores.  But  the  loss  of  the 
Confederates,  who  were  the  assaulting  party 
throughout,  was  more  than  20  per  cent,  larger  than 
that  of  the  Federal  army  in  killed  and  wounded. 
This  was  largely  borne  by  North  Carolina,  which 
furnished  thirty-six  of  the  174  Confederate  regi- 
ments engaged.  Of  the  3,279  Confederate  dead,  650 
were  from  North  Carolina  and  3,279  of  the  15,851 
wounded — more  than  one-fifth. 

Then  followed  the  victorious  march  to  Cedar 
Mountain  and  Second  Manassas,  the  first  Maryland 
campaign,  Sharpsburg  and  the  victory  at  Freder- 
icksburg.  In  these  the  state  suffered  heavily  in 
officers  and  men,  including  Generals  Branch  and 
Anderson,  both  killed  at  Sharpsburg.  At  Freder- 
icksburg  the  Confederate  loss  was  5,322,  of  which 
1,467,  almost  one- third,  fell  upon  North  Carolina 
regiments. 

The  War  in  1863. 

In  December,  1862,  about  the  time  of  the  Freder- 
icksburg  battle,  General  Foster  made  an  advance 
from  New  Bern.  He  penetrated  to  near  Goldsboro, 
burning  the  railroad  bridge  south  of  that  town,  but 
was  speedily  driven  back  with  loss.  In  the  spring 


492       THE  HISTOKY  OF  NORTH  CAEOLINA. 

of  1863,  the  Confederates  returned  the  compliment 
and  threatened  Plymouth,  Washington,  N.  C.,  and 
New  Bern,  but  were  called  off  by  the  necessity  of 
sending  reinforcements  to  Lee,  who  confronted 
Hooker  and  133,000  Federals  who  had  crossed  the 
Eappahannock.  At  Chancellorsville,  where  Jackson 
fell,  North  Carolina  furnished  twenty-four  of  the 
120  regiments  engaged,  or  one-fifth,  but  her  loss  was 
more  than  one-third  of  the  Confederate  killed — 557 
out  of  1,581,  and  more  than  one-fourth  of  the 
wounded— 2,394  out  of  8,700. 

Then  followed  Gettysburg,  where,  in  the  famous 
charge  of  the  third  day,  the  North  Carolina  dead 
were  found  nearest  the  enemy's  line.  The  official 
report  shows  15,301  Confederates  killed  and 
wounded,  of  which  number  4,033,  or  considerably 
more  than  one-fourth,  were  from  North  Carolina. 
The  heaviest  loss  in  any  one  regiment  in  the  battle, 
or,  indeed,  in  any  battle  during  the  war,  was  in  the 
Twenty-sixth  North  Carolina,  which  lost  588  out  of 
800  present,  or  73  per  cent.  No  brigade  in  Pickett's 
division  lost  as  many  killed  as  this  one  regiment. 
Of  the  2,592  Confederates  killed  at  Gettysburg,  770 
were  North  Carolinians,  435  Georgians,  399  Virgin- 
ians, 258  Mississippians,  217  South  Carolinians  and 
204  Alabamians.  "Dead  men  tell  no  tales "  is  not 
true  of  a  battle. 

In  the  Army  of  the  West,  North  Carolina  had  nine 
regiments  which  rendered  efficient  service.  They 
especially  distinguished  themselves  at  Chickamauga, 
as  did  Clingman's  Brigade  at  Battery  Wagner,  at 
Charleston,  where  it  lost  412  men  in  the  summer 
of  1863. 

The  War  in  1864. 

On  April  20,  1864,  Gen.  Robert  F.  Hoke  captured 
Plymouth  with  the  aid  of  the  ironclad  Albemarle, 
which  came  down  the  Eoanoke.  The  enemy  there- 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1861-1865.  493 

upon  burned  and  evacuated  Washington,  N.  C.  In 
October  following,  the  Albemarle  while  anchored  at 
Plymouth  was  sunk  by  a  torpedo  attack  made  at 
night  by  Lieutenant  Gushing  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  and  the  town  was  soon  recaptured  by  the  en- 
emy. Upon  the  capture  of  Plymouth,  General  Hoke 
moved  against  New  Bern,  but  was  called  off  and 
reached  Petersburg  just  in  time  to  prevent  the  cap- 
ture of  that  city  by  Butler. 

At  the  Wilderness  in  May,  1864,  thirty-four  North 
Carolina  regiments  were  in  the  army  which  faced 
Grant,  besides  those  around  Petersburg.  In  the 
winter  of  1864-5,  North  Carolina  had  in  Virginia 
fifty-nine  regiments,  two  battalions  and  seven  bat- 
teries, composing  thirteen  brigades.  They  sustained 
heavy  loss  in  the  almost  continuous  fighting  up  to 
the  surrender  at  Appomattox.  Of  these  troops, 
eighteen  regiments  were  in  the  army  under  Early, 
were  in  the  sight  of  the  Federal  capitol  and  con- 
tested the  valley  of  Virginia  at  Winchester,  Cedar 
Creek  and  Fisher's  Hill.  The  troops  of  this  state 
were  nearly  one-fourth  of  those  who  held  the  lines 
around  Petersburg  and  Eichmond  for  so  many 
months.  In  addition,  there  were  the  North  Carolina 
regiments  in  the  western  army  and  those  in  this 
state,  at  Wilmington  and  elsewhere.  At  Appomat- 
tox there  were  surrendered  forty-nine  regiments, 
two  battalions  and  six  batteries,  or  what  was  left  of 
them. 

The  War  in  1865. 

In  December,  1864,  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler,  with  a  Fed- 
eral fleet  and  army,  assaulted  Fort  Fisher,  near 
Wilmington,  but  was  driven  back.  In  January, 
1865,  the  attack  was  renewed  under  Admiral  Porter 
and  General  Terry,  who  were  successful  in  a  land 
attack  after  sixty  vessels,  mounting  600  guns,  had 
battered  the  Fort  for  two  days.  The  Confederate 


494       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

forces  in  this  state  were  reenforced  in  January, 
1865,  by  General  Hoke  with  four  brigades  detached 
from  the  army  in  Virginia.  General  Schofield,  ad- 
vancing from  New  Bern,  met  with  a  check  at  South- 
west Creek,  near  Kinston,  on  March  8,  1865,  but  the 
advance  of  Sherman  from  South  Carolina  caused 
the  Confederate  forces  to  fall  back  to  Smithfield, 
where  they  united  with  the  fragments  of  the  western 
army  under  Joseph  E.Johnston,  and  on  three  memor- 
able days,  March  19,  20  and  21,  drove  back  Sher- 
man's army  at  Bentonville.  Sherman  withdrew  to 
Goldsboro.  Learning  of  Lee's  surrender,  Gen.  Jo- 
seph E.  Johnston  began  his  retreat  on  April  10, 
passed  through  Raleigh  April  13,  and  surrendered, 
when  all  hope  was  lost,  at  Greensboro  on  April  26. 
On  May  2  the  army  was  paroled  and  dispersed  to 
their  homes. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  war  the  western  part 
of  the  state  was  subjected  to  raids  from  the  Federal 
troops  in  eastern  Tennessee,  as  well  as  by  banded 
deserters  from  all  parts  of  the  Confederacy,  who 
had  taken  to  the  mountains.  About  1865  General 
Stoneman  made  a  raid  through  that  section.  The 
last  battle  east  of  the  Mississippi  was  fought  at 
Waynesville,  N.  C.,  on  May  9,  1865.  The  Confeder- 
ate troops  engaged,  five  North  Carolina  regiments 
and  two  batteries,  surrendered  the  next  day. 

To  the  Confederate  navy,  besides  its  full  share  of 
men  and  officers,  the  state  contributed  J.  W.  Cooke, 
commander  of  the  Albemarle,  J.  N.  Maffit  of  the 
Florida,  and  James  Iredell  Waddell  of  the  Shenan- 
doah,  which  carried  the  Confederate  flag  around  the 
world  and  did  not  surrender  till  Nov.  6, 1865. 

Conclusion. 

Notwithstanding  the  state's  contribution  of  sup- 
plies to  Lee's  army,  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston  stated 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1861-1865.  495 

to  Governor  Vance  that  when  he  surrendered  he  had 
five  months'  supplies  for  60,000  men  which  had  been 
gathered  in  this  state,  though  Lee's  army  had  been 
fed  for  several  months  almost  entirely  from  North 
Carolina. 

Governor  Vance,  besides  looking  after  the  welfare 
of  the  troops,  imported  60,000  pairs  hand  cards, 
10,000  grain  scythes,  200  barrels  of  blue  stone  (for 
wheat  growers),  besides  large  quantities  of  machin- 
ery, lubricating  oil,  and  supplies  for  the  charitable 
institutions  of  the  state.  He  also  procured  supplies 
of  salt  at  the  state  salt  works.  It  was  this  care  for 
the  soldiery,  and  the  destitute  at  home  as  well,  which 
gave  him  a  hold  on  the  affections  of  the  state  which 
nothing  could  shake. 

The  records  show  that  North  Carolina  furnished 
to  the  Confederacy  128,905  men — exclusive  of  the 
Home  Guards — probably  a  fifth  of  the  whole  number 
in  the  service.  The  official  records  show,  also,  that 
this  state  lost  42,000  men  killed  or  died  in  service — by 
much  the  largest  number  from  any  Southern  state.  Of 
these,  19,673  were  killed  in  battle  or  died  of  wounds.* 

The  heavy  losses  sustained  by  this  state,  and  the 
destitution  among  the  women  and  children  in  1864, 
caused  dissatisfaction  in  certain  sections,  which  was 
utilized  by  W.  W.  Holden,  who  was  a  candidate 
against  Governor  Vance  in  the  campaign  of  1864, 
but  Vance  was  successful  by  an  overwhelming  ma- 
jority. 

Governor  Vance's  Letter  Book  shows  that  while 
he  was  a  staunch  and  most  efficient  supporter  of  the 
Confederate  cause,  which  he  aided  with  every  avail- 
able man  and  all  the  means  at  his  command,  he 
sturdily  differed  with  President  Davis  as  to  many 
of  his  methods.  He  complained  to  the  President  that 


*Fox's  Riyimental  Lout*,  664. 


496       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

while  North  Carolina  had  been  lavish  in  furnishing 
men  and  supplies,  she  had  not  been  as  liberally  rec- 
ognized by  the  Confederate  government,  and  when 
a  citizen  of  another  state  was  sent  here  to  be  put  at 
the  head  of  the  conscript  bureau,  he  promptly  and 
persistently  insisted  on  his  removal.  In  1864  Hon. 
George  Davis,  of  North  Carolina,  became  attorney- 
general  in  the  Confederate  cabinet. 

North  Carolina  lost  three  of  her  seven  major-gen- 
erals killed  in  battle — Pender,  Eamseur  and  Whit- 
ing; and  six  of  her  twenty-six  brigadier-generals — 
Branch,  Anderson,  Pettigrew,  Daniel,  Gordon  and 
Godwin.  The  others,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
were  wounded.  The  list  of  the  colonels  and  other 
officers  killed  is  in  the  same  heavy  proportion  as  the 
loss  among  her  rank  and  file. 

After  the  war  was  over,  the  Confederate  soldiers 
in  North  Carolina  composed  the  vast  majority  of 
the  surviving  manhood  of  the  state.  Unawed  by 
the  garrisons  of  the  victorious  army  and  unseduced, 
they  took  their  stand  for  Anglo-Saxon  supremacy 
and  saved  the  South  from  the  fate  of  Hayti  and  the 
West  Indies.  They  built  up  the  waste  places,  broke 
up  the  soil  anew  to  the  plow,  they  laid  railroad 
tracks  into  new  sections  and  relaid  those  that  had 
.been  worn  out.  They  taxed  themselves  to  educate 
the  new  generation,  without  regard  to  color,  and  to 
provide  for  the  worn-out  and  disabled  Confederates, 
to  whom  the  general  government  dispensed  no  aid, 
though  the  South  was  taxed  for  the  care  of  the  Fed- 
eral disabled.  While  doing  these  things  they  were 
carrying  on  a  desperate  struggle  to  drive  off  the 
carpet-bag  adventurers  from  the  North,  who,  join- 
ing with  a  few  native  scallawags,  were  utilizing  the 
prejudices  and  ignorance  of  the  negro  vote  in  a  sys- 
tem of  organized  and  unprecedented  plunder.  Lit- 
erally, like  the  frontiersmen  of  colonial  days,  or  the 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1865-1909.  497 

Hebrews  when  rebuilding  the  walls  of  Jerusalem, 
the  workman  labored  with  his  arms  at  hand. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY — Fox's  Regimental  Losses,  Official  Records  Union  and 
Confederate  Armies;  Hill's  History  of  North  Carolina;  Moore's  History 
of  North  Carolina,  Vol.  II;  Clark's  North  Carolina  Regimental  Histories; 
Governor  Vance's  Speech  "  North  Carolina's  Record  "  at  White  Sulphur 
Springs,  Va.,  Aug.  18,  1875;  Governor's  Letter  Books  North  Carolina, 
1861-5. 

WALTER  CLARK, 
Chief  Justice  Supreme  Court,  State  of  North  Carolina. 


CHAPTER  V. 

NORTH  CAROLINA,  FROM  1865  TO  THE 
PRESENT  TIME. 

Reconstruction. 

On  April  13,  1865,  the  Union  army  under  General 
Sherman  entered  Raleigh,  and  the  keys  of  the  capitol 
were  surrendered  by  ex-Gov.  David  L.  Swain,  presi- 
dent of  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  acting 
under  the  directions  of  Governor  Vance,  who  had 
retreated  westward  with  Gen.  Robert  F.  Hoke's 
command.  When  General  Schofield  reached  Greens- 
boro, Governor  Vance  wished  to  surrender  to  him, 
but  was  advised  by  the  general  to  go  home  and  re- 
main there  quietly.  This  he  did,  but  on  May  14  he 
was  arrested  and,  after  being  carried  to  Washington, 
confined  in  Old  Capitol  Prison.  The  state  by  this 
time  was  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  military 
forces  of  the  United  States,  and  the  civil  government 
of  the  commonwealth  had  ceased  to  exist.  In  its 
place  was  military  government  with  General  Scho- 
field in  command.  His  administration,  which  lasted 
until  the  end  of  June,  was  as  acceptable  to  the  people 

Vol.  1—32. 


498       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

as  was  possible  under  the  circumstances,  and  was  so 
successful  that  peace  and  good  order  was  rapidly 
restored  and,  according  to  General  Schofield,  the 
presence  of  troops  rendered  unnecessary.  He  was 
very  anxious  to  be  provisional  governor  of  the  state, 
and  under  him  restoration  would  have  been  very 
rapid,  but  President  Johnson  had  other  plans  in 
mind.  After  consultation  with  a  number  of  people 
from  North  Carolina,  he  had  appointed  "William  W. 
Holden,  the  editor  of  the  Standard  and  the  leader  of 
the  peace  movement  during  the  war.  Until  1858  he 
had  been  the  most  influential  man  in  the  Democratic 
party,  and  was  probably  the  most  extreme  secession- 
ist in  the  state.  In  that  year  he  was  defeated  for 
the  gubernatorial  nomination,  and  from  that  time 
was  gradually  estranged  from  the  party  and  began 
to  take  the  position  of  a  strong  Unionist.  As  the 
war  approached  he  was  very  bitter  in  his  opposi- 
tion, but  changed  in  time  to  sign  the  secession  ordi- 
nance and  become  a  strong  advocate  of  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  war.  By  1862  he  was  lukewarm  to  the 
cause  and  in  1863  was  heading  a  movement  for 
peace.  Defeated  by  Vance  for  governor  in  1864,  he 
was  discredited  in  the  eyes  of  most  of  the  people. 
The  old  Whigs  hated  him  as  bitterly  as  the  Demo- 
crats, for  he  had  deserted  them  in  1843  and  had 
been  largely  responsible  for  their  downfall  in  1850. 
In  view  of  his  past  record,  a  more  unsuitable  person 
could  scarcely  have  been  selected  for  the  responsible 
post  he  was  now  called  on  to  fill. 

Johnson's  Flan  of  Reorganization;  Governor  Holden. 

Acting  in  accordance  with  the  President's  pro- 
clamations, Governor  Holden  organized  the  provi- 
sional government  of  the  state  and  called  a  conven- 
tion of  the  people  which  met  on  October  2.  Edwin 
G.  Reade  was  chosen  president  and  the  temper  of 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1865-1909.  499 

the  convention  was  clearly  conciliatory.  Ordinances 
were  at  once  passed  declaring  the  secession  ordi- 
nance null  and  void,  abolishing  slavery  and  declar- 
ing all  state  offices  vacant  as  a  preparation  for  re- 
organization. No  action  would  have  been  taken  in 
regard  to  the  state  debt  if  Governor  Holden  had 
not  got  from  the  President  what  was  practically  a 
command  for  the  passage  of  an  ordinance  of  repu- 
diation. This  was  passed,  and  after  providing  for 
the  election  of  state  and  county  officers,  members  of 
Congress  and  members  of  the  General  Assembly,  the 
convention  adjourned  until  the  following  spring. 

Governor  Worth. 

Governor  Holden 's  part  in  securing  repudiation 
and  his  attempt  to  build  up  a  machine  in  his  own 
interest  through  his  influence  in  securing  pardons 
had  increased  the  number  of  those  opposed  to  him, 
and,  in  consequence,  when  the  election  for  governor 
approached,  Jonathan  Worth,  an  old  Whig  with  a 
clearer  Union  record  than  Holden 's,  who  had  seen 
long  service  in  the  General  Assembly  and  as  state 
treasurer  during  the  war,  and  who  was  then  pro- 
visional treasurer,  was  brought  out  against  him  and 
elected  by  a  majority  of  over  6,000.  Holden  at- 
tempted to  stamp  his  opponent  as  a  "rebel"  and  as 
the  representative  of  the  secessionists,  and  so  far 
succeeded  that  he  was  not  allowed  to  take  up  the 
reins  of  government  until  January,  1866.  In  the 
meantime  the  General  Assembly  met  and  elected 
William  A.  Graham  and  John  Pool  to  the  United 
States  Senate.  Like  the  members  of  Congress  who 
had  been  chosen  at  the  preceding  election,  they  were 
denied  their  seats,  and  the  first  definite  check  was 
thus  given  the  President's  plan  of  restoration. 

Owing  to  this  condition  of  affairs  nothing  could 
be  accomplished  in  the  way  of  economic  improve- 


500       THE  HISTORY  OF  NOETH  CABOUNA. 

ment.  Labor  conditions  were  particularly  chaotic, 
not  only  because  of  the  unsettled  condition  of  polit- 
ical affairs  and  the  natural  tendency  on  the  part  of 
the  negroes  to  take  advantage  of  their  freedom  to 
refuse  to  work,  but  also  because  of  the  interference 
of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau.  This  institution  accom- 
plished much  for  the  relief  of  the  destitute  and  suf- 
fering, but  it  was  productive  of  much  harm  through 
the  attempts  of  its  officers  to  array  the  negroes 
against  the  whites  and  to  arouse  them  to  political 
activity.  These  officers,  so  far  as  was  the  case  in 
North  Carolina,  were,  in  the  main,  tactless,  preju- 
diced, dishonest  and  incompetent,  and  their  influ- 
ence was  of  the  worst  kind.  The  courts  were  subject 
to  constant  interference  by  the  Bureau  officials,  and 
it  became  a  matter  of  impossibility  to  punish  a 
negro  criminal.  White  men  were  arrested  on  the 
most  trivial  charges,  which  were  more  than  often 
false,  and  were  subjected  to  severe  and  humiliating 
punishments.  A  contempt  for  courts  was  thus  bred 
and  was  followed  by  a  contempt  for  law  and  order 
among  the  negroes  and  among  many  of  the  whites. 
This  was  not  the  least  of  the  evils  of  Reconstruction. 
The  Bureau  officers  defended  their  action  by  many 
accounts  of  the  injustice  which  the  negroes  received 
from  their  former  owners,  but  these  were  distortions 
of  fact.  The  legislature  of  1865-66  adopted  the  re- 
port of  a  special  committee  which  recognized  the 
citizenship  of  the  negro  and  gave  him  practical 
equality  with  the  white  race  before  the  law.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  period  there  was  a  disposition  on 
the  part  of  the  white  people  to  live  peaceably  with 
the  negroes  and  to  protect  them  from  injustice.  But 
there  was  a  firm  belief  that  the  negro  was  not  pre- 
pared for  political  privileges  and  that  he  still  needed 
restraint,  and  this  opinion  has  not  been  substantially 
altered  in  the  years  that  have  elapsed. 


NORTH  CAEOLINA,  1865-1909.  501 

New  Constitution. 

In  1866  Governor  Worth  was  reflected  over  Al- 
fred Dockery  by  a  majority  of  over  23,000.  The 
convention,  in  the  meantime,  had  held  a  second  ses- 
sion and  submitted  to  the  people  a  new  constitution 
differing  but  little  from  the  old  one.  The  most  im- 
portant alteration  was  the  change  from  federal  to 
white  population  as  the  basis  of  representation. 
On  account  of  the  doubt  in  the  minds  of  many  as  to 
the  validity  of  the  convention,  and  largely  through 
the  influence  of  former  Chief  Justice  Kuftm,  the  con- 
stitution was  rejected  by  the  people.  {The  main 
issueof  the  campaign  was  the  question  of  the  ratifi- 
cation ~of  foe  Fojirteentb~  aTnendmftnt,  which  had 
^fiortl  before  been  submitted  to  the  states. 


the  legislature  met,  it  was  rejected  by  a  large  ma- 
jority, only  eleven  votes  being  cast  in  both  houses 
in  its  favor.  This,  however,  was  a  larger  vote  than 
it  received  in  any  Southern  state  except  Tennessee, 
where  it  was  ratified. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Holden  and  others  were 
active  in  the  organization  of  an  opposition  which 
was  to  be  the  nucleus  of  the  Republican  Party  in  the 
state.  The  economic  and  financial  prostration  of  the 
state  materially  assisted  in  this,  and  in  the  West, 
always  jealous  of  the  East  and  since  the  war  pos- 
sessed of  an  additional  cause  of  hostility,  additional 
strength  was  found. 

Reconstruction  Acts. 

The  result  of  the  election  of  1866  gave  Congress 
a  new  impulse  and  a  new  confidence,  and  the  result 
was  the  passage  of  the  reconstruction  acts  of  1867. 
Under  these  North  Carolina  became  a  part  of  the 
second  military  district  under  the  command  of  Gen. 
Daniel  E.  Sickles.  General  Sickles  desired  to  inter- 
fere as  little  as  possible  with  the  state  government, 


502       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

and  relied  upon  Governor  Worth  for  advice  in  the 
settlement  of  many  of  the  questions  which  soon 
arose.  In  pursuance  of  the  reconstruction  policy 
now  adopted,  the  state  was  divided  into  eleven  mili- 
tary sub-districts,  and  preparations  were  made  for 
the  registration  of  voters  under  the  conditions  of 
the  reconstruction  acts.  On  account  of  the  test  oath 
being  required  for  all  officers,  this  work  was  largely 
in  the  hands  of  Northern  men  and  negroes.  By  mili- 
tary order  negroes  were  also  placed  on  the  jury  lists. 
In  August  General  Sickles,  who  had  become  involved 
in  a  quarrel  with  the  President  on  account  of  his 
famous  ' '  General  Order  No.  10, ' '  was  removed  from 
command  and  was  succeeded  by  Gen.  E.  E.  S.  Canby. 
Under  General  Canby  registration  was  completed, 
the  lists  showing  106,721  whites  and  72,932  negroes 
registered.  Fraud  in  the  registration  was  common, 
but  nothing  else  was  to  be  expected  when  the  agency 
and  plan  are  considered.  The  election  was  held  for 
two  days  in  November,  and  out  of  a  total  of  125,967 
votes,  93,006  were  cast  for  the  call  of  a  convention, 
only  two  counties,  Orange  and  Currituck,  giving  ma- 
jorities against  it. 

Constitutional  Convention. 

The  convention  met  in  Kaleigh  on  Jan.  14,  1868. 
The  Eepublicans  had  a  majority  of  ninety-four,  of 
whom  sixteen  were  carpet-baggers  and  thirteen  ne- 
groes. Calvin  J.  Cowles,  who  was  disfranchised 
under  the  reconstruction  acts,  was  elected  president. 
The  body  was  completely  under  the  control  of  the 
"carpet-baggers,"  led  by  Gen.  Joseph  C.  Abbott, 
David  Heaton  and  Albion  W.  Tourgee.  They  were 
vigorously  but  ineffectually  opposed  by  the  thirteen 
Conservatives  led  by  Plato  Durham  and  John  W. 
Graham.  The  convention  was  the  most  extravagant 
lawmaking  body  in  the  history  of  the  state  to  that 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1865-1909.  503 

time,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  reign  of  corrup- 
tion and  anarchy  which  followed.  It  remained  in 
session  until  March  14,  when  it  adjourned,  submit- 
ting to  the  people  a  constitution  which  was  a  com- 
plete change  from  the  former  one.  Universal  man- 
hood suffrage  was,  of  course,  the  most  revolutionary 
change.  Among  others  was  the  abolition  of  the  dis- 
tinction between  suits  at  law  and  suits  in  equity,  the 
election  of  judges  by  the  people  for  a  short  term ;  the 
abolition  of  any  property  qualification  for  holding 
any  office,  the  creation  of  a  number  of  new  offices, 
the  abolition  of  the  county  courts  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  new  form  of  county  government,  and  the 
extension  of  the  terms  of  the  state  officers  from  two 
to  four  years.  When  submitted  to  the  people,  the 
constitution  was  ratified  by  a  majority  of  over 
19,000.  At  the  same  time  the  entire  Republican 
state  ticket,  headed  by  William  W.  Holden,  defeated 
the  Conservative  ticket,  headed  by  Thomas  S.  Ashe. 
Holden 's  majority  was  18,641.  The  Republicans 
also  elected  six  of  the  seven  members  of  Congress. 
Fraud  was  again  common,  and  it  is  worthy  of  men- 
tion that  General  Canby  set  the  example  by  ex- 
cluding from  participation  in  the  election,  in  plain 
defiance  of  the  constitution,  all  who  had  been  tempo- 
rarily disfranchised  by  the  reconstruction  acts. 

Governor  Worth  was  removed  from  office  on  June 
30  and  Governor  Holden  took  the  oath  of  office  on 
July  4.  He  entered  upon  his  duties  full  of  hatred 
for  his  opponents  and  intensely  ambitious  for  him- 
self. In  consequence  of  this  he  was,  from  the  begin- 
ning, the  tool  of  the  carpet-baggers,  and  while 
everything  points  to  the  fact  that  he  was  personally 
innocent  of  any  connection  with  the  wholesale  plun- 
dering that  was  going  on,  he  was  well  aware  of  it 
and  did  nothing  to  check  it,  but  lent  the  weight  of  his 
influence  to  the  spoilers. 


504       PHE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 
Legislature  of  1868. 

The  legislature  met  July  1  with  its  membership 
politically  distributed  as  follows :  Senate,  38  Bepub- 
licans,  12  Democrats;  House,  80  Eepublicans,  40 
Democrats.  There  were  twelve  carpet-baggers  and 
nineteen  negroes  among  the  Eepublican  members. 
John  Pool  and  Joseph  C.  Abbot  were  elected  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  and  the  Fourteenth  amend- 
ment was  immediately  ratified.  The  body  then 
turned  to  an  occupation  more  immediately  profitable 
to  certain  of  the  members.  Guided  and  instructed 
by  a  ring  dominated  by  Gen.  Milton  S.  Littlefield 
and  George  W.  Swepson,  the  latter  a  native,  a  reign 
of  plunder  and  extravagance  was  entered  upon. 
iWithin  four  months  the  issue  of  bonds  was  author- 
ized to  the  extent  of  $25,350,000.  About  $12,000,000 
were  actually  issued.  The  bonds  were  gambled 
away  and  otherwise  fraudulently  disposed  of,  and 
this,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  no  interest  was  paid, 
soon  rendered  them  worthless.  Most  of  this  amount 
was  issued  to  aid  in  railroad  construction,  and  not  a 
mile  of  railroad  was  built  in  this  way.  The  old  debt 
of  the  state,  principal  and  interest,  already 
amounted  to  $16,000,000.  The  whole  property  of  the 
state,  as  assessed,  only  amounted  to  $130,000,000. 
Taxes  became  confiscatory  and,  by  1870,  land  had 
fallen  in  value  at  least  50  per  cent,  from  the  value 
set  in  1860.  Economic  ruin  seemed  imminent.  Cor- 
ruption was  rampant,  violence  was  increasing  at  a 
terrible  rate,  and  the  courts  were  so  debased  that 
the  judges,  even  of  the  supreme  court,  took  an  active 
part  in  politics. 

Ku  Klux  Elan  in  North  Carolina. 
For  the  purpose  of  protection,  and  also  for  polit- 
ical purposes,  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  was  soon  organized 
in  the  state,  and  for  a  time  was  very  active.    Its 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1865-1909.  505 

influence  upon  the  minds  of  the  negroes  was  par- 
ticularly effective,  and  it  was  not  without  a  salutary 
effect  upon  the  whites  against  whom  it  was  directed. 
In  time,  however,  it  degenerated  as  the  membership 
increased,  and  many  of  its  most  influential  members 
left  it.  It  was  particularly  active  in  1869,  and  ap- 
parently was  dying  out  in  1870  when  Governor 
Holden,  realizing  that  the  record  of  the  Eepublican 
legislature  was  such  as  to  make  it  extremely  doubt- 
ful if  the  party  could  win  success  at  the  summer 
elections,  conceived  the  idea  .of  making  political 
capital  out  of  the  Ku  Klux  and  making  use  of  means 
for  the  suppression  of  the  Klan  which,  at  the  same 
time,  would  intimidate  voters.  Accordingly,  under 
authority  of  the  Shoffner  act,  he  began  to  raise  a 
force  of  state  troops.  In  defiance  of  the  law  this  was 
mainly  composed  of  men  from  other  states,  chiefly 
from  Tennessee,  and  was  commanded  by  George  W. 
Kirk,  a  Tennessee  bushwhacker  of  the  late  war. 
The  troops  were  then  sent  to  Alamance  and  Gas- 
well  counties,  which  were  declared  in  a  state  of  in- 
surrection on  the  strength  of  Ku  Klux  outrages  that 
had  occurred  months  before.  A  reign  of  terror  fol- 
lowed, for  the  troops  terrorized  every  community 
to  which  they  were  sent.  Innocent  men  were  ar- 
rested by  the  score  and  crowded  into  jail,  and  some 
even  put  to  torture. 

Among  Holden 's  most  bitter  personal  and  political 
enemies  was  Josiah  Turner,  editor  of  the  Raleigh 
Sentinel,  the  Democratic  organ.  By  Holden 's  or- 
ders he  was  arrested  at  his  home  in  Orange  county, 
which  county  was  not  accused  of  being  in  insurrec- 
tion. A  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  sued  out  before 
Chief  Justice  Pearson,  but  both  Holden  and  Kirk 
refused  to  obey  the  writ,  and  Judge  Pearson  de- 
clared that  the  power  of  the  judiciary  was  ex- 
hausted. The  matter  looked  hopeless,  but  Judge 


506       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Brooks,  of  the  United  States  district  court,  upon 
application,  issued  the  writ  and  prepared  to  use  the 
force  of  the  United  States  to  support  it.  Governor 
Holden,  after  appealing,  without  success,  to  Presi- 
dent Grant,  gave  up  his  attempt  to  overawe  the  peo- 
ple and  released  the  prisoners.  It  became  evident 
later  that  it  had  been  his  intention  to  turn  them  over 
for  trial  to  a  military  commission  dominated  by 
Kirk,  and  what  their  fate  would  have  been  is  not  a 
matter  for  doubt.  Kirk  and  his  men  fled  the  state 
to  avoid  the  punishment  that  threatened  them. 

End  of  Reconstruction  Period. 

The  election  resulted  in  an  overwhelming  victory 
for  the  Democrats,  and  when  the  General  Assembly 
met  in  December,  Governor  Holden  was  impeached 
and  after  conviction  removed  from  office.  Lieut.- 
Gov.  Tod  E.  Caldwell  succeeded  him  and,  in  1872, 
was  reflected  over  Augustus  S.  Merrimon.  The 
General  Assembly  remained  Democratic.  Governor 
Caldwell  was  a  man  of  bitter  prejudices,  but  was 
sternly  honest.  He  died  in  office  and  was  succeeded 
by  Curtis  H.  Brogden.  The  carpet-baggers  left  the 
state  in  1870,  and  from  that  time  the  affairs  of  the 
state  were  administered  honestly  and  with  great 
economy.  Several  attempts  were  made  by  the 
Democrats  to  secure  the  call  of  a  constitutional  con- 
vention, but  they  were  unable  to  secure  the  neces- 
sary majority  in  the  legislature,  and  when  the  ques- 
tion was  submitted  to  the  people  it  was  defeated. 
Finally,  in  1875,  a  convention  was  called  which  made 
several  important  changes  in  the  constitution.  The 
most  important  act  was  the  repudiation  of  the 
fraudulent  bonded  debt  of  the  state.  Any  payment 
of  this  debt  must  be  approved  by  the  people  before 
taking  place,  and  there  is  little  likelihood  that  such 
approval  will  ever  be  secured.  Other  important 


NOETH  CAEOLIXA,  1865-1909.  507 

changes  were  mainly  directed  to  the  securing  of 
total  separation  of  the  races. 

In  1876  the  Democrats  determined  to  carry  the 
state,  and  nominated  Zebulon  B.  Vance  for  gov- 
ernor. He  had  finally  had  his  political  disabilities 
removed  and  was  in  the  prime  of  his  powers.  He 
was  opposed  by  Thomas  Settle,  who  resigned  from 
the  supreme  court  to  accept  the  Republican  nomi- 
nation. After  the  most  exciting  campaign  in  the 
history  of  the  state,  Vance  was  elected  and  the  state 
carried  for  Tilden.  It  had  given  its  electoral  vote 
to  Grant  in  1868  and  in  1872,  but  it  now  entered  the 
ranks  of  the  solid  South,  where  it  has  remained  ever 
since. 

State  Politics  Since  1876. 

In  1878  Governor  Vance  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate  and,  upon  his  acceptance,  Lieut.-Gov. 
Thomas  J.  Jarvis  became  governor.  He  was  elected 
governor  in  1880  after  a  bitter  contest  for  the  nomi- 
nation with  Daniel  G.  Fowle.  In  1884  Alfred  M. 
Scales  was  elected,  and  in  1888  Daniel  G.  Fowle. 
Governor  Fowle  died  in  office  and  was  succeeded  by 
Thomas  M.  Holt.  Elias  Carr  was  elected  in  1892. 
All  of  these  were  Democrats,  and  it  seemed  as  if 
that  party  were  firmly  entrenched  in  power.  But  in 
1894  the  Republicans  and  Populists  had  a  majority 
in  both  houses  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  in 
1896  fused  and  elected  Daniel  L.  Russell  governor. 
By  the  fusion  the  Republicans  were  put  in  complete 
control  of  the  state  government,  and  there  was  a 
general  fear  in  the  state  that  the  conditions  of  Re- 
construction would  return.  The  negroes  became  in- 
creasingly powerful  in  the  party,  and  in  the  East 
there  was  an  increasing  danger  of  negro  domination. 
In  some  counties  the  situation  became  unbearable, 
and  in  towns  like  Wilmington,  New  Bern  and  Green- 
ville life  and  property  were  no  longer  safe.  The 


508       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

municipal  governments  were  controlled  by  negroes, 
and  magistrates  and  policemen  were  frequently 
colored.  Taxation  increased  without  any  corre- 
sponding benefit,  and  the  outlook  was  very  dark. 

When  the  campaign  of  1898  came  the  Democrats 
took  the  issue  which  had  been  made  for  them  and 
appealed  to  the  state  on  the  platform  of  "White 
Supremacy."  An  overwhelming  victory  was  the  re- 
sult. Immediately  after  the  election  the  people  of 
Wilmington  cast  off  the  burden  they  were  carrying 
by  forcing  the  leading  negroes  and  white  Repub- 
licans to  leave  the  city,  and  by  electing  a  mayor  and 
board  of  aldermen  who  were  pledged  to  restore 
order. 

When  the  General  Assembly  met,  it  prepared  and 
submitted  to  the  people  a  constitutional  amendment 
imposing  an  educational  qualification  for  voting, 
with  a  "grandfather  clause"  to  protect  the  white 
illiterate  voters.  This  exception  expired  in  1908. 
This  amendment  was  the  issue  of  the  campaign  of 
1900,  and  the  Democratic  platform  pledged  the  party 
to  create  a  system  of  public  schools  which  would 
give  to  every  man  the  opportunity  of  an  education. 
The  amendment  was  adopted  by  a  large  majority, 
and  Charles  B.  Aycock,  the  Democratic  candidate, 
was  elected  governor.  He  was  succeeded,  in  1904, 
by  Eobert  B.  Glenn. 

The  effect  of  the  amendment  has  been,  thus  far, 
to  give  the  Democratic  party  the  sure  control  of  the 
state,  but  the  removal  of  the  negro  from  politics 
has  had  a  distinctly  liberalizing  effect  upon  state 
politics,  and  is  destined  to  cause  great  changes  in 
the  future.  Political  issues  are  slowly  changing, 
and  the  leading  questions  between  the  parties  in  the 
future  will  be  more  of  an  economic  nature  than  they 
have  been  since  the  War  of  Secession.  There 
are  many  reasons  to  believe  that  there  will  be,  in  the 


NORTH  CAEOLIXA,  1865-1909.  509 

near  future,  an  increasingly  powerful  body  of  inde- 
pendent voters  that  will,  in  time,  make  the  state  a 
doubtful  one.  In  the  period  that  has  elapsed  since 
the  adoption  of  the  amendment  the  negro  has  prof- 
ited greatly  by  his  removal  from  politics,  and  this 
fact  is  generally  acknowledged  even  by  the  negroes 
themselves. 

Prohibition. — One  of  the  most  interesting  political 
movements  since  the  war  is  prohibition.  In  1881 
the  question  of  prohibition  was  submitted  to  the 
people  and  defeated  by  a  vote  of  48,370  to  166,325. 
Since  that  time  there  has  been  a  steady  growth  of 
prohibition  sentiment,  and  a  development  of  "local 
option"  by  means  of  special  legislation.  In  1903, 
by  the  "Watts  Law,"  the  principle  of  local  option 
was  greatly  extended,  and  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  liquor  was  confined  to  incorporated  towns.  In 
1905  a  still  greater  advance  was  made  by  a  law,  later 
held  valid  by  the  supreme  court,  making  the  place 
of  delivery  the  place  of  sale.  Under  this  legislation 
90  per  cent,  of  the  state  became  ' '  dry. ' '  At  the  spe- 
cial session  of  the  legislature,  in  1908,  the  question 
of  state  prohibition  was  submitted  to  the  people, 
and  it  was  adopted  by  a  majority  of  43,000.  The  law 
went  into  effect  in  January,  1909. 

Control  of  Railroads. — Another  political  question 
which  has  recently  been  greatly  discussed  is  that  of 
state  control  of  the  railroads.  In  1891  the  legisla- 
ture established  the  railroad  commission,  later 
changed  to  the  corporation  commission,  charged 
with  the  supervision  of  the  railroads,  the  steamboat 
and  canal  companies,  and  the  express,  telegraph  and 
telephone  companies  doing  business  in  the  state.  It 
was  made  the  duty  of  the  commission  to  prevent 
extortionate  rates,  discrimination,  the  giving  of  re- 
bates, and  other  similar  abuses.  In  1907  the  legis- 
lature undertook  the  reduction  of  passenger  rates 


510       THE  HISTORY  OE  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

and  provided  a  heavy  fine  as  a  penalty  for  refusal  to 
obey  the  law.  This  was  intended  to  discourage  re- 
sistance. The  railroads  refused  to  obey  the  law, 
appealing  to  United  States  Circuit  Judge  Pritchard 
for  an  injunction  against  its  enforcement  on  the 
ground  that  the  legislation  was  confiscatory.  Judge 
Pritchard  granted  a  temporary  injunction  and  ap- 
pointed a  commission  to  take  testimony  as  to 
whether  the  rates  were  confiscatory  before  making 
the  injunction  permanent.  Cases  against  the  South- 
ern Eailway  were  brought  in  the  state  courts,  and 
Governor  Glenn  declared  his  intention  of  supporting 
the  state  courts  against  Judge  Pritchard.  A  serious 
crisis  seemed  imminent,  when  the  railroads  agreed 
to  put  the  new  rates  into  effect  until  a  special  ses- 
sion of  the  legislature  could  be  called  to  consider  a 
compromise  which  the  railroads  offered.  The  com- 
promise was  passed  at  the  special  session,  and  the 
question  was  settled,  temporarily  at  least. 

Chief  Political  Question. — The  chief  political  issue 
since  the  war,  apart  from  the  race  question,  has  been 
the  efficiency  and  economy  of  administration.  Both 
parties  are  now  committed  to  education,  the  care 
of  the  insane  and  the  proper  care  of  Confederate 
soldiers. 

Development  of  Governmental  Activity. 

Charities. — A  noticeable  fact  in  the  story  of  the 
state  since  the  war  is  the  great  increase  in  the  activ- 
ity of  the  state  government  in  regard  to  things  that 
tend  to  the  building  up  of  state  prosperity.  Some 
of  these  are  worthy  of  discussion.  Under  the  consti- 
tution of  1868  provision  was  made  for  a  board  of 
public  charities.  This  still  exists  and  is  of  increas- 
ing value  and  importance.  The  state  now  supports 
three  hospitals  for  the  insane — at  Raleigh  and  Mor- 
ganton  for  white  patients,  and  at  Goldboro  for 


NOKTH  CAKOLIKA,  1865-1909.  511 

colored.  The  two  latter  have  been  built  since  1875. 
The  state  prison  also  has  a  department  for  the 
criminal  insane.  The  four  institutions  combined 
accommodate  nearly  2,000  patients.  In  Ealeigh 
there  is  a  school  for  the  deaf  and  blind,  and  at  Mor- 
ganton  one  for  the  deaf  and  dumb.  The  state  also 
makes  annual  appropriations  for  the  soldiers'  home 
and  the  Masonic  and  colored  orphanages  at  Oxford. 
The  total  number  of  persons  thus  aided  is  about 
4,000.  The  amount  thus  expended  annually  by  the 
state  is  $436,000,  and,  in  addition,  special  appro- 
priations for  improvement  are  made  at  every 
session,  amounting,  in  1907,  to  $51,200.  All  the 
institutions  are  admirably  but  economically  man- 
aged and  are  among  the  chief  glories  of  the 
state. 

Agriculture. — From  its  beginnings  the  chief  eco- 
nomic interest  of  the  state  has  been  agriculture,  and, 
in  consequence,  the  government,  at  a  very  early  date, 
began  a  system  of  reports  designed  to  assist  the 
farmers  in  improving  agricultural  conditions.  The 
constitution  of  1868  first  provided  for  an  agricul- 
tural bureau  under  the  secretary  of  state.  The  con- 
vention of  1875  amended  this,  and  in  1877  the  legis- 
lature organized  the  department  of  agriculture  in 
its  present  form  under  the  direction  of  a  commis- 
sioner. An  idea  of  its  activity  may  be  gained  from 
the  various  divisions  of  the  department.  Among 
them  are  chemistry,  bacteriology,  veterinary,  ento- 
mology, immigration  and  exhibits,  and  museum. 
Fanners'  institutes  are  held  under  the  auspices  of 
the  department  in  various  parts  of  the  state,  and 
the  subject  of  good  roads  is  being  presented  to  the 
people  in  a  convincing  way.  The  department  has 
charge  of  the  inspection  of  fertilizers,  cotton-seed 
meal  and  commercial  feeds.  There  is  also  pure  food 
inspection.  Bulletins  are  published  monthly  which 


512       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

disseminate  the  results  of  the  department 's  scientific 
activity. 

Other  Departments. — Other  state  departments 
which  have  been  created  in  recent  years  are  those 
of  labor  and  statistics  and  insurance.  The  depart- 
ment of  public  instruction  has  been  greatly  enlarged 
and  strengthened,  and  will  be  discussed  under  the 
head  of  Educational  Development. 

Before  the  war  the  state  had  a  geologist,  but  as 
organized  at  present  the  North  Carolina  geological 
survey  dates  from  1891,  and  a  most  effective  work 
has  been  done  along  this  line. 

The  activity  of  the  state  has  not  been  entirely 
concentrated  upon  material  things.  Largely  through 
the  labors  of  Col.  William  L.  Saunders,  for  many 
years  secretary  of  state,  the  publication  of  the  valu- 
able Colonial  Records  was  made  possible.  This  series 
was  succeeded  by  one  of  State  Records,  edited  by 
Chief  Justice  Walter  Clark.  These  records  have 
opened  a  mine  of  historical  material  which  has  great- 
ly stimulated  historical  study  and  writing  in  the 
state.  Recently  the  legislature  has  created  an  his 
torical  commission  which  has  a  paid  secretary  devot- 
ing his  whole  time  to  the  collection  and  publication 
of  historical  material. 

Educational  Development. 

Before  the  war  the  state  of  North  Carolina  was 
the  foremost  of  the  Southern  states  in  public  edu- 
cation. But  by  1865  most  of  the  endowment  of 
the  school  system  was  swept  away,  and  what  re- 
mained was  lost  during  Eeconstruction.  The  Re- 
publicans, in  1868,  elected  Rev.  S.  S.  Ashley,  a  car- 
pet-bagger from  Massachusetts,  superintendent  of 
public  instruction.  His  administration  of  the  office 
was  costly  and  without  any  good  results  as  far  as 
public  education  was  concerned,  Mr.  Ashley  being 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1865-1909.  513 

the  chief  beneficiary.  He  was  succeeded  by  Alex- 
ander Mclver,  an  honest  man  who  was  greatly 
handicapped  by  the  prostration  of  the  state  and  a 
lack  of  interest  in  the  question.  Stephen  D.  Pool 
was  elected  in  1875,  but  was  forced  out  by  his  own 
party  the  next  year.  The  following  have  filled  the 
office  since:  John  Pool,  1876-77;  John  C.  Scarbor- 
ough, 1877-85;  S.  M.  Finger,  1885-93;  John  C.  Scar- 
borough, 1893-97;  C.  H.  Mebane,  1897-1901;  James 

Y.  Joyner,  1902 .    There  was  little  improvement 

in  the  system  during  the  years  preceding  1897.  Up 
to  that  time  the  office  of  superintendent  was  a  polit- 
ical one,  and  the  various  incumbents  knew  little  of 
the  practical  question  of  public  education,  and  it  was 
not  until  Mr.  Mebane  came  into  office  that  a  trained 
teacher  assumed  control  and  educational  revival  be- 
gan. The  campaigns  of  1898  and  1900  forced  upon 
the  Democratic  party  a  definite  educational  policy, 
and  for  the  first  time  the  schools  began  to  receive 
anything  that  approached  adequate  support.  An 
enthusiastic  and  persistent  educational  campaign 
has  been  carried  on  ever  since  with  most  gratifying 
results.  The  system,  as  a  whole,  is  better  organ- 
ized, the  schools  better  equipped  and  managed,  and 
the  teachers  better  paid  and  better  trained.  Public 
interest  has  been  aroused  and  the  state  is  definitely 
committed  to  public  education  of  a  sort  hitherto 
unknown  in  North  Carolina.  The  appropriations 
from  the  state  are  increasing  and  the  amount  raised 
by  local  taxation  is  growing  rapidly.  The  following 
figures  are  interesting  as  an  illustration  of  what  is 
being  done  in  the  state  in  an  educational  way : 

Teachers  Enrollment  Houses  Value  Houses 

1901 6,050  331,358  7,314  $1,146,000 

1907 10,146  483,927  7,513  3,637,680 

Vol.  1—33. 


514       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Prior  to  1904  about  $50,000  per  annum  was  raised 
by  local  taxation.  Since  that  time  the  amount  has 
increased  as  follows: 

Period  Amount 

1904-1905 $338,414.33 

1905-1906 448,774.35 

1906-1907 546,131 .53 


Total $1,333,320.21 

In  the  period  from  1894  to  1901  the  total  disburse- 
ments amounted  to  $6,120,263.28.  From  1901  to 
1908  they  amounted  to  $12,387,578.33.  Over  $5,- 
000,000  of  this  was  spent  in  the  two  years  from 
1906  to  1908. 

The  state  also  assists  the  University  of  North 
Carolina,  the  North  Carolina  Agricultural  and  Me- 
chanical College,  the  Normal  and  Industrial  Col- 
lege, the  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  for 
the  Colored,  and  a  large  number  of  smaller  institu- 
tions. The  annual  appropriations  for  these  amount 
to  about  $200,000.  In  addition  special  appropria- 
tions are  made  almost  every  year,  amounting,  in 
1907,  to  $220,000.  The  value  of  the  plants  of  these 
institutions  is  about  $2,500,000 ;  the  combined  teach- 
ing force  numbers  more  than  300,  and  about  4,000 
students  are  in  attendance. 

The  various  denominational  schools  and  colleges 
have  been  keeping  abreast  of  the  new  educational 
movement.  Prominent  among  these  are  Wake  For- 
est (Baptist),  Trinity  (Methodist),  Davidson  (Pres- 
byterian), Guilford  (Friends),  and  Elon  (Chris- 
tian), with  104  teachers  and  1,500  students. 

Economic  Development. 

Industrial  Development. — At  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  between  the  states,  manufacturing  had  scarce- 
ly made  a  beginning  in  North  Carolina.  There  were 
many  establishments  it  is  true,  3,689  in  all,  but  they 


NORTH  CAKOLINA,  1865-1909.  515 

were  small  and  unimportant.  Employment  was  thus 
given  to  14,217  persons.  The  capital  invested  was 
$9,693,703  and  the  total  value  of  the  products  was 
$16,678,698.  Of  the  factories,  39  were  devoted  to 
the  manufacture  of  cotton  with  a  capital  of  $1,272,- 
750  and  a  product  valued  at  $1,046,047.  The  total 
number  of  spindles  was  41,884  and  of  looms  761. 
The  state  was  distinctly  agricultural,  and  manu- 
facturing may  be  said  to  have  been  untried.  There 
was  no  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  the  state 
either  as  regards  water  power  or  products. 

The  four  years  of  war  swept  away  all  that  had 
been  done,  and  the  financial  prostration  resulting 
from  Reconstruction  prevented  any  general  develop- 
ment for  a  number  of  years.  But  with  returning 
prosperity  the  needs  of  the  state,  coupled  with  the 
success  of  the  pioneers  who  had  dared  the  experi- 
ment, led  to  a  period  of  industrial  development 
which,  although  much  has  already  been  accom- 
plished, has  scarcely  begun.  As  it  is  North  Caro- 
lina has  rapidly  forged  to  the  front  among  the 
Southern  states  in  industrial  development  without 
losing  her  stride  in  agricultural  development.  The 
growth  has  not  been  marked  in  the  number  of  fac- 
tories but  in  their  size  and  efficiency.  The  so-called 
manufacturing  establishments  of  1860  have  been 
replaced  by  several  hundred  less,  but  the  contrast  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  matter  of  capital,  number  of  em- 
ployees, and  the  value  of  product.  In  1900  there 
were  3,465  establishments  with  a  capital  of  $68,- 
283,000,  employing  72,322  wage-earners.  In  1905 
there  were  3,272  establishments,  a  decrease  of  193, 
with  a  capital  of  $141,000,639,  an  increase  in  five 
years  of  106.5  per  cent.,  employing  85,339  persons. 
The  amount  paid  for  labor  increased  52.1  per  cent, 
and  the  value  of  the  products  rose  from  $85,270,830 
to  $142,520,776,  an  increase  of  67  per  cent. 


516       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

The  leading  industries  of  the  state  in  the  order  of 
their  importance  are  cotton,  tobacco,  lumber,  flour 
and  mill  products,  furniture,  cotton-seed  oil  and 
cake,  lumber  mill  products,  fertilizer,  leather,  ho- 
siery and  knit  goods,  foundry  and  machine-shop 
products,  and  railroad  shop  construction.  These 
combined  have  2,299  establishments  with  a  capital  of 
$128,359,043,  and  produce  89.9  per  cent,  of  the  total 
for  the  state. 

The  following  figures  in  regard  to  cotton,  the  most 
important  of  these  industries,  gives  an  idea  of  what 
is  being  done  at  the  present  time  as  well  as  the 
growth  of  the  industry  in  the  state : 

Year 

1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

1905. . . 


Cost  of 

Capital 

Wages  and  Material 

Value 

$1,030,900 

$1,146,760 

$1,345,052 

2,855,800 

1,903,304 

2,554,482 

10,775,134 

7,715,834 

9,563,443 

33,011,516 

22,513,711 

28,372,798 

57,413,418 

40,528,852 

47,254,054 

The  number  of  active  spindles  increased  from 
1,113,432,  in  1900,  to  2,604,444,  in  1907,  and  the  num- 
ber of  looms  from  25,469,  in  1900,  to  43,219,  in  1905. 
The  state  now  stands  third  in  cotton  manufacture 
and  second  in  the  manufacture  of  tobacco.  In  the 
latter  industry  the  value  of  the  product,  in  1905,  was 
$28,087,969.  Relatively  the  industrial  development 
of  the  state  is  interesting.  In  1890  it  stood  as  the 
twenty-eighth  in  the  United  States,  and  in  1900  it 
had  risen  to  the  sixteenth  place,  which  it  also  held 
in  1905. 

Agricultural  Development. — The  mainstay  of  the 
state  up  to  the  period  of  industrial  development 
was  agriculture,  and  it  cannot  be  said  with  any 
truth  that  agriculture  has  suffered  with  the  in- 
creased industrial  activity  which  has  come  to  the 
state ;  rather  has  it  benefited.  The  years  of  greatest 
industrial  growth  have  been  these  in  which  agricul- 


XOKTH  CAROLINA,  1865-1909.  517 

ture  was  most  profitable.  In  1900  there  were  in  the 
state  224,637  farms  valued  at  $194,655,920,  and  the 
value  of  agricultural  products  was  $89,082,556. 
Since  that  time  values  have  greatly  increased  both 
as  to  farms  and  products.  While  the  gross  value 
of  manufactures  greatly  exceeds  that  of  agricul- 
tural products,  the  net  value  of  the  latter  is  far 
larger,  and  it  will  be  many  years  before  North  Caro- 
lina can  be  called  anything  but  an  agricultural  state. 

Of  the  staple  products  corn  is  the  most  valuable, 
with  cotton  second  and  tobacco  third.  Truck  farm- 
ing is  estimated  to  bring  in  many  millions  annually 
and  is  increasing  very  rapidly.  Improved  methods 
are  revolutionizing  farming  in  the  state  and  the  di- 
versity of  products  renders  the  future  very  bright. 
North  Carolina  now  stands  fourteenth  in  rank  in  the 
United  States  and  third  in  the  South. 

One  of  the  most  hopeful  things  about  the  situation 
in  the  state  is  the  increase  in  the  number  of  farms. 
This  is  assisting  in  the  settlement  of  the  problem 
of  labor,  which,  however,  is  still  acute.  To  remedy 
this  persistent  efforts  are  being  made  by  the  state 
and  by  individuals  and  corporations  to  encourage 
immigration,  and  this  is  beginning  to  meet  with  some 
success.  This  is  particularly  so  in  the  East  near 
Wilmington,  and  the  example  set  there  will  probably 
soon  be  followed  in  other  portions  of  the  state. 

Other  Factors  in  Economic  Development. — The 
state  is  very  rich  in  minerals,  but  so  far  they  have 
not  been  fully  developed.  But  the  value  of  mineral 
products  is  increasing  and  in  1906  amounted  to 
$3,062,847.  Another  source  of  wealth  is  the  fish- 
eries on  the  coast,  which  produced  $1,739,661. 

Wealth,  Debt  and  Taxation. — The  estimated  true 
wealth  of  the  state  is  over  $1,000,000,000.  The  as- 
sessed valuation  is  $488,662,568.  In  1860  the  as- 
sessed valuation  of  all  property  was  $358,739,795. 


518       THE  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

The  population  of  the  state  is  2,086,912,  compared  to 
992,667  in  1860,  and  the  per  capita  wealth  is  thus 
$420,  compared  to  $361  in  1860.  The  state  debt  is 
$6,873,450,  and  the  town  and  county  debt  $8,593,180. 
The  rate  of  taxation  is  very  low,  being  only  $0.52 
per  $100  of  real  valuation  and  $1.15  per  $100  of  as- 
sessed valuation.  This  is  lower  than  in  any  other 
Southern  state. 

In  this  connection  mention  must  be  made  of  cer- 
tain factors  in  production.  The  railroads  of  the 
state  have  been,  in  the  main,  in  a  prosperous  condi- 
tion. The  state  has  abandoned  any  part  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  railroads  in  which  it  owns  stock  and 
has  leased  them  out  to  corporations.  The  mileage  in 
the  state  has  increased  from  about  940,  in  1860,  to 
4,196  at  the  present  time.  Active  construction  is 
still  going  on,  and  the  steady  development  of  the 
state  leads  to  the  belief  that  the  era  of  construction 
is  not  nearing  an  end. 

The  banking  business  of  the  state  is  on  a  firm 
foundation,  as  was  evidenced  by  their  bearing  the 
panic  of  1907  with  apparently  little  difficulty.  There 
are  now  297  state  banks  with  a  capital  of  $7,421,373, 
and  sixty- seven  National  banks  with  a  capital  of 
$6,535,000. 

Other  corporations  such  as  insurance  companies, 
both  life  and  fire,  and  building  and  loan  associations 
are  very  numerous  and  apparently  very  prosperous. 

In  the  foregoing  pages  much  has  been  said  of  the 
material  development  of  the  state  within  a  certain 
period.  It  is  a  wonderful  story  of  success  against 
great  odds,  the  story  of  a  grim  determination  to  suc- 
ceed in  the  rehabilitation  of  the  state.  It  has  been 
the  custom  in  the  South  in  the  past  to  speak  much 
of  the  glories  of  the  ante-bellum  South,  and  to  com- 
pare the  present  to  it  in  a  most  unfavorable  way. 
The  time  for  that  has  passed.  Viewed  from  a  ma- 


NORTH  CAROLINA,  1865-1909.  519 

terial  or  from  an  intellectual  standpoint,  North 
Carolina  of  to-day  has  surpassed  the  North  Carolina 
of  1860.  And  the  struggle  for  survival  has  pro- 
duced a  new  type  of  citizenship  superior  to  the  old, 
if  less  productive  of  men  who  stood  head  and  shoul- 
ders above  their  fellows.  To-day  is  the  era  of  the 
business  man,  calm,  conservative  and  clear-headed, 
who  carries  into  all  the  relations  of  life  the  same 
activity  and  determination  which  have  rescued  the 
state  from  the  degradation  of  Keconstruction  and 
the  despair  of  economic  prostration.  The  door  of 
opportunity  stands  open  to-day  to  every  man  as 
never  before,  and  never  did  merit  and  personal 
worth  so  count  in  the  struggle  for  success.  For 
many  years  North  Carolina  was  likened  to  Kip  Van 
Winkle,  and  with  good  cause.  But  with  awakening 
has  come  a  giant's  strength,  which  is  being  employed 
in  the  creation  of  a  new  life  and  a  new  civilization. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Appleton:  Annual  Cyclopaedia  (1861-1902);  Ham- 
ilton: Reconstruction  in  North  Carolina  (Raleigh,  1906);  Laws  of  North 
Carolina  (1865-1907);  Legislative  Documents  of  North  Carolina  (1865- 
1907);  United  States  Census  Reports  (1860-1905). 

JOSEPH  GKEGOIRE  DE  ROULHAC  HAMILTON, 

Alumni  Professor  of  History,  University  of  North  Carolina. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

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